Di Gu Pi
StarLycium chinense Mill. or Lycium barbarum L.
Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Energy & fatigue
Cautions & contraindications
- Bleeding disorders
- Diabetes
☯ TCM Properties
Nourishes Yin and Clears Deficiency Heat; Clears Lung Heat and Drains Lung Fire; Cools the Blood and Stops Bleeding; Generates Fluids and Relieves Thirst
Traditional Chinese Uses
Di Gu Pi (lycium root bark, wolfberry root bark) is a cool herb that specializes in clearing deep deficiency Heat from within the Blood level. Its primary indication is the "steaming bone" fever pattern — presenting with afternoon fever, night sweats, and a feverish sensation deep in the bones without outwardly measured fever — characteristic of Kidney and Lung Yin deficiency with internal heat. It also clears Lung Heat for coughing with blood, and cools Blood Heat to stop certain types of bleeding from heat. It is a fundamental herb in formulas for constitutional Yin deficiency with heat.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Lycium chinense (and the closely related L. barbarum), source of Di Gu Pi, is a deciduous, sprawling to scandent shrub in the Solanaceae family, reaching 1-3 m with slender arching, often spiny branches. Leaves are alternate or fascicled, ovate-lanceolate to rhombic, 2-6 cm long, with entire margins. Small lavender to purple funnel-shaped flowers 1-1.5 cm across produce bright red-orange ovoid berries (goji/wolfberry) 1-2 cm long. Native to East Asia, it is cultivated widely on dry slopes, riverbanks, and as hedging. Di Gu Pi specifically denotes the dried cortex (root bark) harvested in early spring or late autumn.
Active Constituents
Kukoamine A
Spermine-type phenolic polyamine alkaloidConcentration: 1.13-9.65 mg/g of the dried root bark across 16 authenticated batches by HPLC
Isolated in 1980 from the root bark of Lycium chinense (the crude drug jikoppi) as its hypotensive principle, and used together with kukoamine B as the analytical marker that distinguishes genuine Di Gu Pi from market substitutes. The hypotensive claim is not settled: orally administered synthetic kukoamine A at 5 and 10 mg/kg for five weeks had no effect on arterial pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats.
Kukoamine B
Spermine-type phenolic polyamine alkaloidConcentration: 3.39-22.08 mg/g of the dried root bark; consistently more abundant than kukoamine A
The dominant polyamine alkaloid of Lycii Cortex and, with kukoamine A, the compound proposed as the quality marker for the drug. Both Lycium chinense and Lycium barbarum root bark carry equivalent kukoamine profiles, so the two botanical sources are not distinguishable on this basis.
Phenolic amides (lyciumamide and related dihydro-N-caffeoyltyramine amides)
Hydroxycinnamoyl amide (phenolic amide)A group of cinnamoyl-tyramine amides characteristic of the root bark rather than the fruit; lyciumamide was described as a new dipeptide-like amide from this drug, and phenolic amides from Lycium chinense root bark have been reported to have antifungal activity in vitro.
(+)-Lyoniresinol-3alpha-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside
Aryltetralin lignan glycosideIsolated from the root bark of Lycium chinense and reported to inhibit antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains and human pathogenic fungi in vitro. It has no counterpart in the popular literature on the fruit.
Acacetin
Methoxylated flavoneOne of the constituents identified in Cortex Lycii extract; in A549 and H1299 lung adenocarcinoma cells it lowered phosphorylated AKT and mTOR, an effect reversed by the HSP90 agonist terazosin.
Apigenin
FlavoneIdentified in Cortex Lycii extract and, like acacetin, reduced p-AKT and p-mTOR levels in human lung cancer cells in vitro.
5alpha-Stigmastane-3,6-dione
Stigmastane-type steroidA steroidal ketone reported from the Chinese drug ti-ku-pi (Lycii radicis cortex). It is a chemotaxonomic marker of the root bark and has not been characterised pharmacologically in humans.
Sugiol
Abietane diterpeneA phenolic abietane diterpene reported from Lycii radicis cortex. Its contribution to the clinical actions of the drug is unknown.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Insulin, sulfonylureas and other glucose-lowering drugs
This is a real rather than a theoretical effect. Lycium bark extract, explicitly the root bark of Lycium chinense, given orally at 425 mg/kg for 10 weeks to db/db mice prevented the rise in blood glucose seen in controls and maintained insulin levels; in C2C12 myotubes it increased glucose uptake concentration-dependently, independent of PI3K (LY294002) and AMPK (dorsomorphin) inhibition, and raised GLUT1 mRNA. Nine new compounds isolated from Lycium chinense root bark were also characterised by their alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Evidence is animal and in vitro; there is no human trial.
Clinical note: Check capillary glucose more often when Di Gu Pi is added to or withdrawn from the regimen of a patient on insulin or an oral hypoglycaemic, and expect the antidiabetic dose to need review rather than assuming the herb is inert.
Antihypertensive drugs (ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers)
Kukoamine A was named the hypotensive principle of Lycium chinense root bark when it was first isolated in 1980, and Lycii Cortex is used for hypertension in China, so an additive effect is plausible. The evidence is not one-sided: a 2022 study administering synthetic kukoamine A orally at 5 and 10 mg/kg per day for five weeks to spontaneously hypertensive rats found no effect on systolic, diastolic or mean arterial pressure. The whole drug contains several other constituents and has not been tested against antihypertensive drugs in humans.
Clinical note: Take a blood pressure reading before and a week or two after starting Di Gu Pi in a treated hypertensive patient, but do not pre-emptively reduce antihypertensive doses on the strength of the traditional claim.
Warfarin and other vitamin K antagonists
The published warfarin reports concern Gou Qi Zi, the FRUIT of Lycium barbarum, not Di Gu Pi, the root bark. A 71-year-old woman on warfarin presented with epistaxis, bruising and rectal bleeding and an indeterminate INR after four days of goji juice (Naranjo score 6, probable), and a 65-year-old man on a stable maintenance dose bled after drinking goji-berry wine, with the authors attributing it to more than 6-12 g of the fruit. The two drugs come from the same plants but differ almost completely in composition: the root bark is a kukoamine and phenolic-amide drug, the fruit a polysaccharide, carotenoid and betaine drug. No case of a Di Gu Pi and warfarin interaction has been published, and the mechanism of the fruit interaction is itself unresolved.
Clinical note: Do not transfer the goji warfarin warning wholesale to Di Gu Pi, but do confirm which part of the plant the patient has actually been supplied, since retail Lycium products are almost always the fruit. Where fruit and root bark are both in use, monitor INR.
Substandard or substituted Di Gu Pi lacking kukoamines
Market samples sold as Digupi have been shown by HPLC to lack the kukoamine markers that authenticated Lycium chinense and Lycium barbarum root bark carry, which is why kukoamine A and B were proposed as quality markers with minimum content limits of 1.45 mg/g and 4.72 mg/g respectively. A separate quality-marker study quantified kukoamine A and ten other components across 35 batches from seven producing areas and found large regional variation.
Clinical note: Buy Di Gu Pi from a supplier who can produce an assay for kukoamines A and B, and treat unexplained loss of effect as a possible material-quality problem rather than a dosing problem.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 9–15 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】9～15g。 【性味与归经】甘，寒。归肺、肝、肾经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Dui Yao — Herb Pairs
The classical two-herb combinations this herb appears in, each with an action neither herb has alone.
Together they drain lurking heat from the Lung and calm wheezing and cough without injuring the yin.
Classic indication: cough and wheezing from Lung heat with skin that feels hot, worse in the afternoon.
Core pair of a classical formula — Xie Bai San, Xiao Er Yao Zheng Zhi Jue (Qian Yi, 1119)
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 3 studiesRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
3
2 verified · 1 unverified
Show 3 studies
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Hypoglycemic Activity and the Mechanisms of Lycium Bark Extract in db/db Mice
Nine-week-old male db/db mice were given the root bark extract of Lycium chinense at 425 mg/kg orally for 10 weeks. Blood glucose rose in controls but was unchanged in the treated group, and insulin, which fell in controls after four weeks, stayed relatively high with treatment. In C2C12 myotubes the extract increased glucose uptake concentration-dependently and raised GLUT1 mRNA, an effect not blocked by PI3K or AMPK inhibitors. The authors attributed the glucose lowering to a combination of preserved insulin secretion and increased glucose uptake.
Influence of oral administration of kukoamine A on blood pressure in a rat hypertension model
A negative result worth knowing. Spontaneously hypertensive rats, with normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats as controls, received synthetic kukoamine A orally at 0, 5 or 10 mg/kg body weight daily for five weeks after a preliminary safety assessment in mice. Systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressures rose over the study in every group and did not differ by treatment, so the authors reported no effect of orally administered kukoamine A on arterial hypertension in this model. This tempers the long-standing description of kukoamine A as the hypotensive principle of the root bark.
Study on the mechanism of Cortex Lycii on lung cancer based on network pharmacology combined with experimental validation
Cortex Lycii is the lead herb of Xie Bai San, and this study addressed its own contribution. Network pharmacology retrieved 38 components and 79 candidate lung-cancer targets, with PI3K-AKT the most populated pathway, and docking predicted binding to HSP90AB1. In A549 and H1299 cells the extract suppressed migration and invasion dose-dependently, raised E-cadherin and lowered N-cadherin, vimentin and MMP2, and reduced p-AKT and p-mTOR without changing total protein; the HSP90 agonist terazosin reversed this, as it did for the isolated constituents acacetin and apigenin. All work was in cell lines, so this supports a mechanism rather than a clinical indication.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynastyXiao Er Yao Zheng Zhi Jue
Song dynastyBen Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynastyReferences
- Li Y-Y, Di R, Hsu W-L, Huang Y-Q, Cheung H-Y. Quality control of Lycium chinense and Lycium barbarum cortex (Digupi) by HPLC using kukoamines as markers . Chinese Medicine (2017) [DOI]
- Wang X, Li G, Ding H, Du X, Zhang L, Zhang J, Liu D. Prediction of Lycii Cortex Quality Marker Based on Network Pharmacology and Chemometrics Methods . International Journal of Analytical Chemistry (2024) [DOI]
- Yang Y-N, An Y-W, Zhan Z-L, Xie J, Jiang J-S, Feng Z-M, Ye F, Zhang P-C. Nine new compounds from the root bark of Lycium chinense and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity . RSC Advances (2017) [DOI]
- Rivera CA, Ferro CL, Bursua AJ, Gerber BS. Probable Interaction Between Lycium barbarum (Goji) and Warfarin . Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy (2012) [DOI]
- Zhang J, Tian L, Xie B. Bleeding due to a probable interaction between warfarin and Gouqizi (Lycium Barbarum L.) . Toxicology Reports (2015) [DOI]
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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