Chinese bottle tree
StarFirmiana simplex
Synonyms: Sterculia tomentosa, Sterculia pyriformis, Sterculia firmiana, Firmiana platanifolia f. tomentosa, Firmiana simplex var. glabra, Sterculia platanifolia, Firmiana platanifolia, Sterculia simplex, Sterculia fiorniana, Firmiana platanifolia var. tomentosa, Firmiana chinensis, Clompanus simplex, Caucanthus platanifolia, Culhamia triloba, Culhamia platanifolia, Culhamia simplex, Culhamia hadiensis, Clompanus pyriformis
Safety at a glance
No rule in our tables for this herb: pregnancy, breastfeeding, incompatible pairs (十八反 / 十九畏), herb–drug, dose ceiling. This is not a safety clearance.
Not graded — No toxicity grade is recorded. Most herbs in the catalogue carry none.
Traditionally used for
- Teeth & mouth
- Cough & breathing
- Bowel health
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
In Chinese folk medicine and traditional Chinese medicine the various parts of the wutong tree have long been employed. The seeds are regarded as antiphlogistic, expectorant and refrigerant, with a juice from the crushed seeds applied to mouth ulcers in children, while the bark is astringent and prepared as a soothing wash for haemorrhoids and a decoction of the roots used to reduce swellings, carbuncles and sores. A wash made from the leaves and bast fibre has been used in hair care (Useful Tropical Plants; Plants For A Future).
Gallery
Botanical Description
Firmiana simplex, the Chinese parasol tree or wutong, is a deciduous tree of the family Malvaceae (formerly Sterculiaceae) native to eastern Asia and widely planted as an ornamental and street tree. It reaches 10 to 20 metres in height, with a straight trunk and characteristically smooth, green bark that persists on older wood. The large, alternate, long-petioled leaves are palmately three- to five-lobed, 15 to 30 centimetres across, giving the crown a bold, tropical appearance. In summer it bears large terminal panicles of small, petalless greenish-yellow flowers; the species is monoecious, with separate male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. The most distinctive feature is the fruit, which splits open long before maturity into five leaf-like, boat-shaped follicles, each bearing several pea-sized seeds along its margins so that the developing seeds are exposed. The pale, wrinkled seeds are edible when roasted. The tree is fast-growing, somewhat short-lived, and naturalises readily in warm-temperate climates.
Active Constituents
Sterculic acid
Cyclopropene fatty acidConcentration: 23.2 per cent of the fatty acids of the seed oil, which is itself 27.8 per cent of the seed by weight; first reported in this species in 2016 and independently reported as a cyclopropenoic acid of the seed oil as early as 1970
The single most safety-relevant compound in this plant and the reason the seed is not an inert food. Sterculic acid is a potent inhibitor of stearoyl-CoA desaturase, the enzyme that makes oleate from stearate, and its documented effects include hypercholesterolaemia in hamsters, impaired reproduction in hens, promotion of aflatoxin-induced hepatoma in trout, and luteal regression in ewes through suppressed progesterone synthesis. Cyclopropene rings survive ordinary cooking temperatures; in baobab seed oil they only break down substantially at about 200 degrees Celsius, well above a decoction.
Linoleic acid
Polyunsaturated fatty acidConcentration: 30.2 per cent of the seed oil fatty acids, with oleic acid at 22.2 per cent, palmitic at 17.4 per cent and stearic at 2.9 per cent
The largest single fatty acid of the seed oil, and the reason the oil has repeatedly been assessed as a biodiesel and edible-oil feedstock. Nutritionally unremarkable; it matters here only as the bulk against which the sterculic acid fraction should be judged.
Delta-tocopherol
Tocopherol (vitamin E isoform)Concentration: 29.5 mg per 100 g of seed oil, of a total tocopherol content of 54.5 mg per 100 g, with gamma-tocopherol at 13.8 mg per 100 g
The dominant vitamin E isoform of the seed oil, with gamma-tocopherol second; the two together account for 43.3 of the 54.5 mg per 100 g total. Delta-tocopherol has low vitamin E activity by the alpha-tocopherol standard even though it is a strong antioxidant in the oil itself, so the total tocopherol figure should not be read as nutritional vitamin E.
Quercitrin
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin 3-O-rhamnoside)Concentration: The major constituent of the active ethyl acetate fraction of the stem bark
Isolated with tamarixetin 3-O-rhamnopyranoside from the stem bark, and the compound that carried the hepatoprotective activity: it protected primary rat hepatocytes against ethanol by lowering intracellular reactive oxygen species and preserving glutathione, glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase. This is bark chemistry and does not describe the seed.
23-Hydroxyursolic acid
Ursane triterpeneConcentration: One of fifteen ursane triterpenes and triterpene saponins reported from the stems, three of them previously undescribed
The most cytotoxic of the stem triterpenes, with IC50 values of 11.96 to 14.11 micromolar against A549 lung, SK-OV-3 ovarian, SK-MEL-2 melanoma and HCT-15 colon cell lines in a sulforhodamine B assay. Modest potency, and no animal follow-up has been published.
Balanophonin
NeolignanConcentration: A minor neolignan of this species, studied as a purified compound rather than quantified in the drug
Suppressed lipopolysaccharide-driven TLR4 activation in BV2 microglia, cutting nitric oxide, prostaglandin E2, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha, and lowering inducible nitric oxide synthase, COX-2 and ERK, JNK and p38 phosphorylation. It reduced downstream neuronal death in N2a cells. Purified-compound cell work only.
Firmianones A and B
Isoprenylated naphthoquinone dimersConcentration: Isolated with firmianone C and thirteen known compounds from the roots
Structurally the most unusual compounds in the plant, built on a rare hexacyclic skeleton whose absolute configuration had to be fixed by circular dichroism exciton coupling. Both showed moderate cytotoxicity against the P388 murine leukaemia line. Root chemistry, distinct from the seed, leaf and bark that are used medicinally.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Progesterone and luteal-phase support in early pregnancy
Sterculic acid, which makes up 23.2 per cent of the seed oil fatty acids, has a demonstrated luteolytic effect in sheep both in vivo and in vitro, suppressing progesterone synthesis and causing regression of the corpus luteum. Impaired reproduction in hens is documented for the same compound class. No one has fed this seed to a pregnant animal or measured what fraction of the sterculic acid survives preparation, so the inference runs from constituent to effect rather than from a study of the drug.
Clinical note: Avoid the seed and any seed-oil preparation in pregnancy and in patients on luteal support during assisted conception. Bark and leaf preparations do not carry the seed oil and are not covered by this caution.
Aflatoxin-contaminated herbs and foodstuffs
Methyl sterculate and methyl malvalate promote the growth of aflatoxin-induced hepatoma in trout, a finding that established cyclopropene fatty acids as co-carcinogens rather than initiators. Poorly dried or poorly stored herbal material is a recognised aflatoxin source, so a sterculic-acid-rich seed taken long-term alongside contaminated material is a plausible compounding exposure. The evidence is a fish carcinogenesis model with purified esters.
Clinical note: Use only well-dried, properly stored seed, avoid long uninterrupted courses, and do not combine with herbs from suppliers without aflatoxin testing.
Statins, fibrates and other lipid-modifying drugs
Inhibiting stearoyl-CoA desaturase changes the saturated to monounsaturated fatty acid ratio of membranes and plasma lipids, and sterculic acid produced hypercholesterolaemia in hamsters. Direction and size of the effect in humans are unknown, and no human lipid study of this seed exists.
Clinical note: If a patient on lipid-modifying therapy takes the seed regularly, repeat the lipid panel rather than assuming the herb is neutral.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Chinese bottle tree. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 5 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
4
0 verified · 4 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Hepatoprotective constituents of Firmiana simplex stem bark against ethanol insult to primary rat hepatocytes
- Ursane Saponins from the Stems of Firmiana simplex and their Cytotoxic Activity
- A New Neolignan Derivative, Balanophonin Isolated from Firmiana simplex Delays the Progress of Neuronal Cell Death by Inhibiting Microglial Activation
- HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis of fruits from Firmiana simplex (L.) and evaluation of their antioxidant and antigenotoxic properties
Other / unclassified
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Physicochemical Properties and Fatty Acid Profile of Phoenix Tree Seed and its Oil
The most consequential paper for anyone dosing the seed. The seed is 27.8 per cent oil, 19.7 per cent protein and 31.2 per cent fibre, and the oil's fatty acids are linoleic 30.2 per cent, sterculic 23.2 per cent, oleic 22.2 per cent, palmitic 17.4 per cent and stearic 2.9 per cent, with 54.5 mg per 100 g total tocopherol dominated by the delta isoform. The authors present this as the first report of sterculic acid in the seeds of this species and propose the oil as a commercial sterculic acid source. Nearly a quarter of the seed oil being a cyclopropene fatty acid is a safety fact about a drug taken as a seed, not a curiosity.
Hepatoprotective constituents of Firmiana simplex stem bark against ethanol insult to primary rat hepatocytes
The ethyl acetate fraction of a methanolic stem bark extract protected primary rat hepatocytes from ethanol, and the flavonoid glycosides quercitrin and tamarixetin 3-O-rhamnopyranoside were isolated from it. Quercitrin significantly reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species and preserved glutathione, glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase. Described by the authors as the first report of hepatoprotective activity for this species; it is a primary hepatocyte study with no whole-animal or human data.
Ursane Saponins from the Stems of Firmiana simplex and their Cytotoxic Activity
Three previously undescribed ursane triterpene saponins and twelve known ursane triterpenes were isolated from the stems and tested by sulforhodamine B assay against A549, SK-OV-3, SK-MEL-2 and HCT-15 cells. Only 23-hydroxyursolic acid was active, at IC50 values of 11.96 to 14.11 micromolar. A phytochemistry paper with a screening assay attached rather than a pharmacology study.
A New Neolignan Derivative, Balanophonin Isolated from Firmiana simplex Delays the Progress of Neuronal Cell Death by Inhibiting Microglial Activation
Balanophonin blocked TLR4 activation in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated BV2 microglia and reduced nitric oxide, prostaglandin E2, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase and COX-2 protein, and ERK, JNK and p38 phosphorylation. In N2a neurons it reduced caspase-3 and PARP cleavage driven by activated microglia. Two cell lines, one purified compound; no in vivo work and no relation to a traditional indication of this herb.
HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis of fruits from Firmiana simplex (L.) and evaluation of their antioxidant and antigenotoxic properties
Phenolic acids and flavonoids were the main polyphenols of the fruit. The ethyl acetate fraction held 314.61 mg gallic acid equivalents per g and scavenged DPPH with an IC50 of 6.79 micrograms per mL against 2.92 for ascorbic acid, with ABTS and FRAP agreeing. In a comet assay the same fraction was antigenotoxic in HepG2 cells challenged with hydrogen peroxide. Chemical and cell assays only, but the closest published work to the fruit and seed that are actually used.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), Li Shizhen
Ming dynasty, 1596Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China
Modern, 2020 editionReferences
- Bai H, Li S, Yin F, Hu L. Isoprenylated Naphthoquinone Dimers Firmianones A, B, and C from Firmiana platanifolia . Journal of Natural Products (2005) [DOI]
- Pelaez R, Pariente A, Perez-Sala A, Larrayoz IM. Sterculic Acid: The Mechanisms of Action beyond Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase Inhibition and Therapeutic Opportunities in Human Diseases . Cells (2020) [DOI]
- Slayden OV, Stormshak F. In Vivo and in Vitro Effects of a Cyclopropenoid Fatty Acid on Ovine Corpus Luteum Function . Endocrinology (1990) [DOI]
- Allen E, Johnson AR, Fogerty AC, Pearson JA, Shenstone FS. Inhibition by cyclopropene fatty acids of the desaturation of stearic acid in hen liver . Lipids (1967) [DOI]
- Msalilwa UL, Makule EE, Munishi LK, Ndakidemi PA. Physicochemical Properties, Fatty Acid Composition, and the Effect of Heating on the Reduction of Cyclopropenoid Fatty Acids on Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) Crude Seed Oil . Journal of Lipids (2020) [DOI]
- Aburano S, Okamoto A, Kurono G. Studies on Fatty Acids from Fruit and Seed Oils. I. Studies on the Cyclopropenoic Fatty Acid from the Seed Oil of Firmiana platanifolia SCHOTT et ENDL . Yakugaku Zasshi (1970) [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.
📝 Notes
Public notes from the community and your own private notes on Chinese bottle tree.
No notes yet.