Traditionally used for
- Urinary & fluids
Western Herbalism Properties
Botanical Description
Galium bungei is a slender perennial herb in the madder family (Rubiaceae), widely distributed across East Asia in China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East, where it grows in grasslands, forest margins, scrub, and waste places from lowlands to mid-elevation mountains. Plants produce numerous slender, weak, often decumbent four-angled stems 10-50 cm long that are glabrous to minutely scabrous on the angles. The leaves are arranged in whorls of four (rarely six) along the stem; each leaf is narrowly oblanceolate to linear-oblong, 0.5-3 cm long and 1-4 mm wide, sessile, with a single midvein, an acute tip, and slightly rough margins. Inflorescences are loose terminal and axillary cymes bearing many small flowers; each flower is 1-2 mm across with four pale yellow to yellowish-green spreading lobes and four short stamens. The fruit is a dry indehiscent schizocarp of two globose mericarps about 1 mm in diameter, smooth or finely papillose, and dispersed by gravity or animals. The species is morphologically variable and several intraspecific varieties have been described.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Hedyotis diffusa (Bai Hua She She Cao)
A name-collision hazard rather than a pharmacological one. She she huang is listed as a vernacular name for both Galium bungei and Hedyotis diffusa, the widely used anti-cancer herb Bai Hua She She Cao, and Hedyotis diffusa also carries the alias er ye lu, one character away from Galium bungei's si ye lu. Both are creeping Rubiaceae with whorled narrow leaves, both are indicated for heat toxin, and both are gathered as whole herb. Galium bungei has no phytochemical or pharmacological literature at all, so a substitution in either direction silently replaces a well-characterised drug with an uncharacterised one.
Clinical note: If a formula calls for Bai Hua She She Cao in an oncology context, verify the botanical source of the material rather than accepting a vernacular name. Whorls of four to six equal leaves indicate Galium; opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules indicate Hedyotis.
Galium aparine (Zhu Yang Yang)
Galium bungei is recorded under the folk name xiao ju ju teng, the diminutive of ju ju teng, which is a common name for Galium aparine. The two are congeners with similar habit. Galium aparine has a documented iridoid and anthraquinone chemistry that Galium bungei does not, so evidence and dosing developed for cleavers should not be transferred to this species on the strength of the shared name.
Clinical note: Do not import Galium aparine monograph data, including its diuretic dosing, into this herb. Treat them as separate drugs.
Historical Texts
National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicines (Quanguo Zhongcaoyao Huibian)
1975, People's Medical Publishing House, BeijingAbsence from the classical materia medica canon
Han dynasty to Qing dynasty, before 1912References
- Compilation Team of the National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicines. Quanguo Zhongcaoyao Huibian (National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicines) . People's Medical Publishing House, Beijing (1975)
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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