Glechoma grandis
StarGlechoma grandis
Synonyms: Glechoma hederacea var. grandis, Glechoma hederacea f. albiflorens, Glechoma hederacea subsp. grandis, Nepeta glechoma var. grandis
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
- Urinary & fluids
- Liver & jaundice
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
- Liver conditions
- Kidney conditions
- Seizure disorders
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
In Chinese folk and traditional medicine the Glechoma group (used as Lian Qian Cao) employs the whole plant, taken as a decoction, to promote urination and clear damp-heat, treating urinary stones (stranguria), jaundice, swellings, abscesses, and traumatic injuries (Zhongyao Da Cidian; Wang et al., 2016).
Botanical Description
Glechoma grandis is a low, creeping perennial herb of the mint family, closely allied to ground ivy. It produces slender, four-angled stems that trail and root at the nodes, forming spreading mats, with ascending flowering shoots. The opposite leaves are long-petioled and kidney-shaped to rounded-cordate with bluntly toothed (crenate) margins, and the foliage is faintly aromatic when bruised. The two-lipped, tubular flowers are blue to violet, borne in small axillary clusters in spring; the calyx is tubular and ribbed and the fruit comprises four smooth nutlets. Native to eastern Asia, it grows in moist woodland, shaded banks, grassy slopes, and disturbed ground.
Active Constituents
Apigenin
FlavoneConcentration: Isolated from the most active chromatographic fraction of an extract of the dried leaves; with luteolin it accounts for about 35 percent of the xanthine oxidase inhibition of the methanol extract and about 18 percent of the boiling-water extract
One of the two potent xanthine oxidase inhibitors identified in the dried leaf of this species. This is the only well-characterised pharmacological activity that has been demonstrated on material identified as var. grandis rather than on a congener.
Luteolin
FlavoneConcentration: Isolated from the same active leaf fraction as apigenin; the two together account for the stated 35 percent and 18 percent shares of xanthine oxidase inhibition
The second of the two flavones responsible for the xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of the leaf tea. Because the boiling-water extract retains only about half the flavone contribution of the methanol extract, a decoction is a substantially weaker inhibitor than a solvent extract.
Pulegone
Monoterpene ketoneConcentration: Listed among the essential oil constituents of the Japanese article of Glechomae Herba in kampo trade references. No quantitative assay of the herb was located, so the exposure from a decoction is unknown
The safety-relevant constituent of this herb. Pulegone is bioactivated by hepatic cytochrome P450 to menthofuran and then to a reactive furan epoxide, which is the established mechanism of pennyroyal hepatotoxicity and of pulegone's abortifacient and convulsant effects. Its presence is the chemical basis for the traditional Japanese contraindication in pregnancy.
Menthone
Monoterpene ketoneConcentration: Essential oil constituent of the Japanese article; no quantitative assay located
A companion monoterpene of pulegone and part of the aromatic character of the dried herb. Menthone itself is comparatively benign, but its co-occurrence marks the pulegone-menthofuran chemotype.
Pinocamphone
Bicyclic monoterpene ketoneConcentration: Essential oil constituent of the Japanese article; no quantitative assay located
A convulsant monoterpene ketone, better known as the neurotoxic principle of hyssop oil. As with pulegone, the concern applies to concentrated oil rather than to the traditional dried-leaf infusion, but no dose-response work has been done on this herb.
Ursolic acid
Ursane-type pentacyclic triterpenoidConcentration: Reported from the stem and leaf of the Japanese article; no quantitative assay located
A widespread Lamiaceae triterpene with anti-inflammatory activity in cell and animal models. It is a plausible contributor to the herb's traditional anti-inflammatory reputation but has not been tested in preparations of this species.
Potassium nitrate
Inorganic saltConcentration: Reported as a notable constituent of the dried aerial parts; no quantitative assay located
Traditionally invoked to explain the diuretic action recorded for this herb in Japanese folk medicine. Nitrate salts do promote diuresis, but the amount delivered by a cup of leaf tea has not been measured.
Choline
Quaternary ammonium compoundConcentration: Reported from the dried aerial parts; no quantitative assay located
A common plant constituent listed in the Japanese crude drug descriptions. It carries no specific therapeutic claim for this herb.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Azathioprine and mercaptopurine
The dried leaf of this species is a potent xanthine oxidase inhibitor in vitro, and apigenin and luteolin were identified as the active constituents. Xanthine oxidase is the principal inactivating enzyme for mercaptopurine, which is why allopurinol requires a large mercaptopurine dose reduction. Whether an infusion of this herb inhibits the enzyme in vivo at achievable plasma concentrations has never been tested, so this remains an inference from an enzyme assay.
Clinical note: Do not add this herb, or kakidoshi tea, to a thiopurine regimen without haematological monitoring. The safer course is to avoid it in patients on azathioprine or mercaptopurine.
Allopurinol and febuxostat
Same mechanism, opposite sign: the herb inhibits the target enzyme these drugs are prescribed to inhibit. The demonstrated effect is in vitro only, and the boiling-water extract used in the traditional tea was appreciably weaker than the methanol extract, so the practical additive effect may be small.
Clinical note: Worth knowing if a gout patient takes kakidoshi tea regularly. Check urate rather than assuming either no effect or a large one.
Glechoma longituba (Lian Qian Cao)
This is an identity problem, not a pharmacological interaction, and it is the single most important thing to know about this record. Glechoma grandis is the Japanese article of Glechomae Herba, the folk drug kakidoshi or renzenso. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia drug written with the same characters, lian qian cao, is Glechoma longituba, a separate accepted species. The confusion is old: Glechoma grandis var. longituba is a formal synonym of Glechoma longituba, so the two were once treated as varieties of one plant. Almost the entire modern pharmacology and phytochemistry literature on this genus, including the large body of anti-urolithiasis and anti-inflammatory work, was done on Glechoma longituba and does not transfer to this species without argument.
Clinical note: Keep the two records separate and do not merge this one into Lian Qian Cao. When citing evidence, name the species that was assayed.
Lysimachia christinae (Jin Qian Cao) and Desmodium styracifolium (Guang Jin Qian Cao)
Japanese sources give jin qian cao as an alternative Chinese name for this plant, and the herb's traditional Japanese indications, urinary and biliary stones and jaundice, are the same indications for which the Chinese coin-grass drugs are used. In Chinese practice at least five unrelated plants circulate under coin-grass names: Lysimachia christinae in Primulaceae, Desmodium styracifolium in Fabaceae, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides in Apiaceae, Dichondra micrantha in Convolvulaceae and Glechoma longituba in Lamiaceae. Their flavours, natures and chemistry differ.
Clinical note: Never fill a coin-grass prescription by name alone. Establish which of the five species the formula intends before dispensing.
Pregnancy, and hepatotoxic or seizure-threshold-lowering drugs
Japanese folk sources record a contraindication in pregnancy and warn against use in seizure disorders and in kidney or liver disease, and the essential oil composition supplies a coherent mechanism: pulegone is metabolised by cytochrome P450 to menthofuran and a reactive furan epoxide that depletes glutathione and produces centrilobular hepatic necrosis, and it is the abortifacient and convulsant principle of pennyroyal. There is no case report of injury from this herb, and the pulegone content of the dried leaf has not been quantified, so the size of the risk is genuinely unknown rather than known to be small.
Clinical note: Avoid in pregnancy and in patients with epilepsy or established liver disease. Never substitute a distilled essential oil or a concentrated solvent extract for the traditional leaf infusion, which is where the pennyroyal precedent says harm occurs.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Glechoma grandis. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
1 study on recordRecorded 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
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
Chemical Evidence for Potent Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity of Glechoma hederacea var. grandis Leaves (Kakidoushi-Cha)
The only pharmacology study located that used material explicitly identified as this taxon, published under the synonym Glechoma hederacea var. grandis. Assay-guided fractionation of the dried leaf tea gave 15 compounds, of which apigenin and luteolin were potent xanthine oxidase inhibitors, contributing about 35 percent of the inhibition by the methanol extract and about 18 percent by the boiling-water extract. Enzyme assay only, with no cell, animal or human component, and no measurement of urate in any organism.
Historical Texts
Japanese folk materia medica under the crude drug name Renzenso, also written kantoriso
Edo period onward, from 1603Glechomae Herba as supplied in Japan, a non-pharmacopoeial kampo crude drug
Twentieth century to the presentReferences
- Masuda A, Takahashi C, Inai M, Miura Y, Masuda T. Chemical Evidence for Potent Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity of Glechoma hederacea var. grandis Leaves (Kakidoushi-Cha) . Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology (2013) [DOI]
- Zhou Y, He Y, Wang Z, Hu B, Xie T, Xiao X, Zhou Z, Sang X, Luo X. A review of plant characteristics, phytochemistry and bioactivities of the genus Glechoma . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2021) [DOI]
- Miura N, Iwatsubo Y. Cytogeography of Glechoma hederacea subsp. grandis (Labiatae) in Japan . CYTOLOGIA (2010) [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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