Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
- Mood & calm
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, promotes the secretion of body fluids, moisten dryness and removes toxicity; Harmonizes the Spleen and Stomach
Traditional Chinese Uses
Gan Zhe is the stem and expressed juice of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), a sweet, cold heat-clearing substance entering the Lung and Stomach channels. It clears Heat, generates and promotes body fluids, and moistens dryness, so it is a classic remedy for febrile thirst, fluid damage after warm-heat disease, dry mouth and throat, and Lung-dryness cough. Its cooling, moistening nature also treats Stomach-Heat with irritability and heat in the chest.
Harmonizing the Spleen and Stomach, sugarcane juice is used to relieve nausea and reflux vomiting due to Stomach-Heat, and traditionally to counter the after-effects of alcohol. It is most often taken as fresh juice rather than decocted; because it is cold and sweet it is used cautiously in Spleen-Stomach deficiency-cold with loose stools or excessive dampness.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Gan Zhe is the stem of Saccharum officinarum (Poaceae), sugarcane, a tall perennial tropical grass 2–6 m high cultivated throughout southern China and the global tropics. Culms are stout, solid, jointed, 2–5 cm in diameter, green to yellow, red or purple according to cultivar, and filled with sweet juice rich in sucrose. The conspicuous nodes bear ringed leaf scars and waxy bands. Leaf blades are linear, 1–2 m long, 4–6 cm wide, with a sharp scabrous margin and prominent midrib. Terminal panicles 30–90 cm long are open and silky-plumose with numerous tiny spikelets surrounded by long silky hairs at maturity. In China, sugarcane is consumed fresh or pressed for juice and used as a moistening, fluid-engendering food remedy.
Active Constituents
Sucrose
DisaccharideConcentration: about 66% by mass of all metabolites identified in fresh cane juice by GC-MS (59% in molasses)
The dominant metabolite of the expressed juice and the physical basis of the classical use to generate fluids and moisten dryness. Pharmacologically it is simply a large, rapidly absorbed simple-sugar load, and it should be counted as such in anyone whose glucose handling matters.
Glucose and fructose
MonosaccharidesConcentration: present alongside sucrose in cane juice by 1H-NMR; alpha- and beta-glucose both detected
Free monosaccharides released by inversion of sucrose during storage and processing. They add to the glycaemic load of the juice.
Flavone C- and O-glycosides (schaftoside, isoschaftoside, orientin, vitexin, tricin glycosides)
Flavone glycosidesConcentration: the main polyphenol subclass of the juice; total phenolics roughly 93 mg gallic acid equivalents per 100 g of juice extract, against 196 mg/100 g for molasses
These flavone glycosides carry essentially all of the measurable antioxidant activity of cane juice in DPPH, TEAC and FRAP assays. Tricin-7-O-deoxyhexosyl glucuronide was reported from sugarcane and molasses for the first time in this profiling work.
Aconitic acid
Tricarboxylic organic acidConcentration: the chief organic acid naturally occurring in cane juice
The principal native organic acid of the juice; malic, formic, acetic and lactic acids are also present, the latter largely formed during processing rather than in the fresh stalk.
Policosanol
Long-chain primary aliphatic alcoholsConcentration: a constituent of the stalk rind wax, not of the expressed juice; sold as an isolated 5-80 mg supplement rather than eaten as part of the herb
Marketed internationally as a sugarcane-derived lipid-lowering agent on the strength of trials from a single research institute. An independent multicentre randomised trial of Cuban sugarcane-derived policosanol at 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/day found no reduction in LDL cholesterol beyond placebo in any group, so this constituent should not be treated as an active lipid-lowering principle of the herb.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Insulin and oral hypoglycaemic agents (metformin, sulfonylureas, SGLT2 inhibitors)
Metabolite profiling of fresh Saccharum officinarum juice puts sucrose at roughly 66% by mass of all identified metabolites, with free glucose and fructose in addition. There is no receptor-level or enzyme-level interaction here: the mechanism is the carbohydrate itself, opposing the pharmacological effect of glucose-lowering drugs and shifting insulin requirements. The same juice extract does inhibit alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase in vitro, but that effect is far too weak to offset the sugar actually delivered.
Clinical note: Count cane juice as dietary sugar, not as a neutral decoction base. Note in particular that Gan Zhe is traditionally reached for in wasting-thirst presentations, which in modern practice usually means diabetes: this is the one setting where the herb's sugar content most directly undercuts the patient's treatment. If it is used at all in a diabetic patient, warn them and coordinate with whoever manages their glucose.
Statins and other lipid-lowering therapy (via sugarcane-derived policosanol supplements)
Policosanol is extracted from sugarcane wax and is widely sold as a natural alternative to statins. The interaction is one of substitution rather than pharmacology. In a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 143 patients with hypercholesterolaemia or combined hyperlipidaemia, Cuban sugarcane-derived policosanol at 10-80 mg/day produced no reduction in LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides or lipoprotein(a) beyond placebo, and no dose-dependency.
Clinical note: If a patient reports taking sugarcane policosanol, do not treat it as lipid-lowering cover. Check that prescribed statin or other therapy has not been reduced or stopped on the strength of it, and recheck a lipid panel if it has.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 2 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
1
1 verified · 0 unverified
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
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
Effect of Policosanol on Lipid Levels Among Patients With Hypercholesterolemia or Combined Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial
This trial tested policosanol, a wax alcohol fraction of Saccharum officinarum, not the whole herb Gan Zhe. 143 patients with hypercholesterolaemia or combined hyperlipidaemia were randomised after a 6-week placebo and diet run-in to 12 weeks of Cuban sugarcane-derived policosanol at 10, 20, 40 or 80 mg/day or placebo. LDL cholesterol fell by less than 10% from baseline in every arm and no arm differed significantly from placebo; there was no dose-dependency and no effect on total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol, triglycerides or lipoprotein(a). Tolerability was good. The result contradicts the large body of earlier positive trials, almost all from a single institute.
Profiling Metabolites and Biological Activities of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum Linn.) Juice and its Product Molasses via a Multiplex Metabolomics Approach
Combined UPLC-MS, NMR and GC-MS profiling of Saccharum officinarum juice and molasses identified 42 metabolites, including nine flavonoids, nine fatty acids and two sterols. Flavone C- and O-glycosides were the main polyphenol subclass, with tricin-7-O-deoxyhexosyl glucuronide reported for the first time in both products. Sucrose accounted for about 66% by mass of identified metabolites in the juice and 59% in molasses. Total phenolic content was 93 mg gallic acid equivalents per 100 g of juice extract versus 196 mg/100 g for molasses, and molasses was correspondingly the stronger antioxidant in DPPH, TEAC and FRAP assays. Both extracts inhibited alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase in vitro.
References
- Franco-Paredes C; Villamil-Gomez WE; Schultz J; Henao-Martinez AF; Parra-Henao G; Rassi A; Rodriguez-Morales AJ; Suarez JA. A deadly feast: Elucidating the burden of orally acquired acute Chagas disease in Latin America – Public health and travel medicine importance . Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2020) [DOI]
- Berthold HK; Unverdorben S; Degenhardt R; Bulitta M; Gouni-Berthold I. Effect of Policosanol on Lipid Levels Among Patients With Hypercholesterolemia or Combined Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial . JAMA (2006) [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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