Gou Ji
StarCibotium barometz (L.) J. Sm.
Traditionally used for
- Urinary & fluids
- Menstrual & women's health
- Pain & joints
Cautions & contraindications
- Kidney conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Dispels Wind-Dampness; Nourishes Liver and Kidney Yin; Strengthens the Lower Back and Knees; Strengthens the Sinews and Bones; Warms and Tonifies the Lower Origin
Traditional Chinese Uses
Gou Ji (cibotium rhizome, chain fern rhizome) is a warm, bitter-sweet herb that tonifies Kidney Yang and Liver Blood, strengthens the sinew and bones, and expels Wind-Damp. Its dual action of tonifying and expelling makes it particularly suitable for lower back and knee pain from Kidney deficiency complicated by Wind-Cold-Damp obstruction — a pattern common in the elderly with chronic degenerative joint conditions. It also supports the Kidney's consolidating function to address urinary incontinence and excessive vaginal discharge.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Cibotium barometz is a large terrestrial tree fern in the Cibotiaceae, with a stout, semi-prostrate to short-erect rhizome densely covered in long, soft, silky, golden-yellow hairs — a feature that gave rise to the medieval legend of the "vegetable lamb of Tartary." The rhizome bears a crown of arching fronds 2-3 m long; the bipinnate to tripinnate fronds have a stout stipe whose base is shaggy with the same golden tomentum, and broadly lance-shaped, leathery, dark green pinnae. Sori are borne on the underside of pinnule margins and protected by bivalved indusia. It grows in moist forest understorey across southern China, Indochina, and Malesia, and is listed on CITES Appendix II.
Active Constituents
Protocatechuic acid
Dihydroxybenzoic acid (phenolic acid)Concentration: The sole official assay marker in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020 for Cibotii Rhizoma, with a minimum of 0.020 percent of the dried rhizome
The compound the drug is standardised on. In primary rat osteoblast culture it increased proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity in a dose-dependent way, alone and together with protocatechuic aldehyde, and the processed drug outperformed both isolated compounds.
It is one of only two peaks in the published HPLC fingerprint of the rhizome that have been confirmed against authentic standards, so a supplier who cannot report it has not assayed the material at all.
Protocatechuic aldehyde
Dihydroxybenzaldehyde (phenolic aldehyde)Concentration: Second standard-confirmed peak in the Pharmacopoeia fingerprint; not itself subject to a content limit
Paired with protocatechuic acid as the index constituent of the rhizome. It promotes osteoblast proliferation and differentiation in vitro, with alkaline phosphatase response somewhat weaker than that of the acid at the highest dose tested.
Chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid
Hydroxycinnamic acids and their quinic esters (phenylpropanoids)Concentration: Identified together with protocatechuic acid, catechin hydrate and ellagic acid as the seven HPLC-resolved phenolics of the ethanol extract
The phenylpropanoid fraction that, with the simple phenolic acids, makes up the bulk of the characterised chemistry of the rhizome. In broadly targeted metabolomics of the rhizome, phenolic acids and flavonoids together accounted for more than half of the 761 secondary metabolites detected.
Phenolic acids are most concentrated in juvenile rhizome and flavonoids in mature rhizome, so harvest age shifts the profile of the drug.
Epicatechin, catechin and apigenin-7-glucoside
Flavan-3-ols and flavone glycosidesConcentration: High-abundance flavonoids of mature rhizome; content rises markedly with rhizome maturity
The flavonoid fraction accumulates as the rhizome matures, and transcriptomic work shows the flavonoid biosynthesis genes upregulated in mature rhizome. These compounds carry most of the antioxidant activity measured in extracts.
Cyclopropyl and lanostane-type triterpene skeletons
TriterpenoidsConcentration: Minor; the biosynthetic enzymes were characterised in 2023 and individual products remain incompletely profiled in the drug
Functional characterisation of triterpene synthases from Cibotium barometz confirmed that the fern makes triterpene scaffolds, but the pharmacology of the individual triterpenes of this species is largely uncharacterised and none has been shown to account for the clinical use.
Golden rhizome trichomes
Lignified epidermal hairs; extracts contain anthraquinones, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, phytosterols and triterpenoidsConcentration: A separate drug part, not part of the sliced rhizome; the hairs are normally stripped off before the rhizome is processed
The golden hairs are traditionally applied topically to bleeding wounds and are not the same drug as the rhizome slices. Phytochemical evaluation of the hairs found strong antioxidant activity concentrated in the ethyl acetate fraction, with non-flavonoid polyphenols the main contributors.
Do not import evidence generated on the hairs into the rhizome monograph or the reverse. Two of the published papers on hair extracts have been retracted, which is a further reason to keep the two parts separate.
⚠ Drug Interactions
CITES Appendix II listing and export controls
Cibotium barometz is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and is Annex B under the European Union wildlife trade regulations. Appendix II is not a ban: it permits international commercial trade only under an export permit issued after the exporting state has made a non-detriment finding, and CITES has published non-detriment finding case studies for this species from Viet Nam and elsewhere precisely because the medicinal harvest is the pressure on it.
The species is harvested from the wild in China and Viet Nam rather than cultivated at scale, and the published literature on it repeatedly describes serious decline of wild populations driven by the medicinal trade. Conservation is therefore a supply and provenance issue for this drug, not a background concern.
Clinical note: Buy only from suppliers who can produce CITES documentation for imported material, and prefer cultivated stock where it exists. A supplier who cannot say where the rhizome came from is selling wild-collected material of unknown legality. This is a restriction on trade, not a contraindication in the patient.
Cibotium cumingii and Cibotium sino-burmaense (cryptic species in Chinese trade material)
Plastome phylogenomics across the Chinese range of the genus showed that what is collected and traded as Gou Ji comprises three genetically distinct species, not one: Cibotium barometz, Cibotium cumingii, and Cibotium sino-burmaense, a cryptic species described in 2023 from northwest Yunnan and adjacent northeast Myanmar. Two further differentiated lineages exist within C. barometz itself, split east and west across a phylogeographic boundary.
The Pharmacopoeia recognises only C. barometz. Neither of the other two species has been assayed for protocatechuic acid, characterised pharmacologically, or evaluated for toxicity, so material of those species is an unstudied drug being dispensed under the name of a studied one. The same study designed five plastome-based DNA barcodes that separate all three species and both lineages.
Clinical note: Prefer material identified to binomial and assayed against the 0.020 percent protocatechuic acid minimum. Yunnan and Myanmar-border material carries the highest risk of being one of the other two species. There is no evidence that the substitutes are harmful; there is also no evidence that they are not.
Antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs (aspirin, clopidogrel, warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants)
Aqueous extract of Cibotii Rhizoma promoted megakaryocyte differentiation in K562 and Meg-01 cells and accelerated platelet recovery and megakaryopoiesis in radiation-induced thrombocytopenic mice, acting through PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK and JAK2/STAT3 signalling. The traditional use of the rhizome hairs as a topical haemostatic points the same way.
This is preclinical evidence in cell culture and in a mouse model of a specific pathology, not a human pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic study, and the direction of any effect on platelet count in a person with normal haematopoiesis is unknown. The concern is that the herb might work against, not with, an antiplatelet regimen.
Clinical note: In a patient on antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy for a thrombotic indication, note the theoretical opposition and monitor rather than assume it is inert. Conversely, this is the one setting in which the herb's platelet effect might be wanted, and a patient recovering from chemotherapy or radiation-induced thrombocytopenia should not be told the effect is proven on the strength of a mouse study.
Prolonged or high-dose use where illudane glycoside content has never been assayed
Ptaquiloside, an illudane-type norsesquiterpene glycoside, is a well-characterised genotoxic carcinogen of ferns. It forms DNA adducts through a dienone intermediate and is the reason bracken is treated as a carcinogenic feed and food plant. It occurs chiefly in Pteridium species and has been reported from several other fern taxa.
Cibotium barometz belongs to Cibotiaceae, a family well separated from the Dennstaedtiaceae and Pteridaceae in which ptaquiloside is concentrated, and no report of ptaquiloside in this species exists. Neither, however, does a published assay showing its absence. The honest position is that the question has not been asked of this drug, and absence of an assay is not evidence of absence.
Clinical note: Nothing here justifies avoiding ordinary short-course decoction use of a Pharmacopoeia-grade rhizome. It is a reason not to represent this fern as having a clean toxicological profile, and a reason to be cautious about very long courses or concentrated extracts, for which no chronic toxicity data of any kind exist.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 6–12 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】6～12g。 【性味与归经】苦、甘，温。归肝、肾经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 7 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
6
1 verified · 5 unverified
Show 6 studies
- Effect of the RW-Cb and its active ingredient like P-acid and P-aldehyde on primary rat osteoblasts
- A Novel Antithrombocytopenia Agent, Rhizoma cibotii, Promotes Megakaryopoiesis and Thrombopoiesis through the PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK, and JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathways
- Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy to Investigate the Mechanisms of Cibotium barometz in Treating Osteoarthritis
- Protective Role of Ethanol Extract of Cibotium barometz (Cibotium Rhizome) against Dexamethasone-Induced Muscle Atrophy in C2C12 Myotubes
- Biological activities and phytochemical content of the rhizome hairs of Cibotium barometz (Cibotiaceae)
- HPLC Fingerprint Analysis of Cibotii rhizoma from Different Regions and Identification of Common Peaks by LC-MS
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
Effects of oral hygiene management containing Cibotium Barometz J. Smith extract on peri-implant mucositis: a randomized clinical trial
Randomised blinded controlled trial in 60 patients with peri-implant mucositis, comparing a toothpick-method regimen containing the extract against chlorhexidine and against saline. Salivary occult blood fell in the extract group and rose in the other two; leukocyte and protein levels fell in both the extract and chlorhexidine groups. Three bacterial species showed a significant effect size only in the extract group.
This is the only randomised human trial of this species that could be located, and it is a topical oral hygiene study, not a test of the musculoskeletal indication the drug is actually prescribed for. It should not be read as evidence for the internal use of Gou Ji.
Effect of the RW-Cb and its active ingredient like P-acid and P-aldehyde on primary rat osteoblasts
This studies the processed drug specifically. RW-Cb, the first processing grade of Cibotium barometz, was compared against isolated protocatechuic acid and protocatechuic aldehyde on primary rat osteoblasts. The processed drug produced the greatest increase in osteoblast proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity of any group; among the isolated compounds a mixture beat either alone, and both showed clear dose response.
The practical point is that the processed drug outperformed its own marker compounds, so processing is not a formality here.
A Novel Antithrombocytopenia Agent, Rhizoma cibotii, Promotes Megakaryopoiesis and Thrombopoiesis through the PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK, and JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathways
Aqueous extract of the rhizome drove megakaryocyte differentiation in K562 and Meg-01 cells and accelerated platelet recovery and megakaryopoiesis in radiation-induced thrombocytopenic mice without systemic toxicity. Pathway inhibitors blocked the effect, implicating PI3K/AKT, MEK/ERK and JAK2/STAT3.
Cell culture plus a mouse disease model. It is the basis for the platelet interaction note above and is not a clinical result.
Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy to Investigate the Mechanisms of Cibotium barometz in Treating Osteoarthritis
Network pharmacology prediction followed by wet-lab checks. In Hulth-model osteoarthritic rats the water extract restrained cartilage degeneration and reduced cartilage mRNA for MMP-1, MMP-3, MMP-13 and COX2; in interleukin-1 beta stimulated SW1353 chondrosarcoma cells it suppressed the same matrix metalloproteinases and prostaglandin E2 and blocked nuclear translocation of NF-kappa-B p65.
Preclinical. The rat and cell work is the substantive part; the network pharmacology component is hypothesis generation and should not be weighed as evidence.
Protective Role of Ethanol Extract of Cibotium barometz (Cibotium Rhizome) against Dexamethasone-Induced Muscle Atrophy in C2C12 Myotubes
Ethanol extract of the rhizome opposed dexamethasone-induced atrophy in C2C12 myotubes, raising myosin heavy chain and phosphorylated Akt, mTOR and p70S6K and suppressing REDD1, KLF15 and the muscle atrophy F-box pathway. Seven phenolics were resolved by HPLC in the extract: protocatechuic acid, catechin hydrate, p-coumaric acid, ellagic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and ferulic acid.
Single cell-line study. Useful mainly for the chemical characterisation of the extract used.
Biological activities and phytochemical content of the rhizome hairs of Cibotium barometz (Cibotiaceae)
Sequential extraction and phytochemical screening of the golden rhizome hairs, the part normally stripped off and discarded before the rhizome is used. The extracts contained anthraquinones, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, phytosterols and triterpenoids; the ethyl acetate fraction was the most antioxidant by ferric reducing power, oxygen radical absorbance capacity and DPPH scavenging, and total phenolic content rather than flavonoid content correlated with activity.
In vitro assay work on a different plant part from the drug. Recorded to keep the hairs and the rhizome distinguishable.
HPLC Fingerprint Analysis of Cibotii rhizoma from Different Regions and Identification of Common Peaks by LC-MS
Thirteen batches of the rhizome from different production regions were fingerprinted by HPLC. Fifteen common peaks were matched with batch similarity above 0.910; only two were confirmed against authentic standards, protocatechuic acid and protocatechuic aldehyde, with thirteen further components inferred by LC-MS. Cluster and discriminant analysis split the batches into three regional groups with different markers.
Analytical quality-control work. It shows that regional provenance measurably changes the chemical profile of this drug.
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
- Kidney conditions
Contraindications
Its use is cautious in patients with kidney deficiency with fever, difficulty in micturition or short inhibited voiding of deep-colored urine.
Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 124–126.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica)
Han dynasty, compiled c. 200 BCE to 200 CEBen Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), Li Shizhen
Ming dynasty, completed 1578, printed 1596Traditional processing practice recorded in the bencao and standardised in modern Chinese pharmaceutical standards
Documented from the Song dynasty onward and codified in twentieth-century processing standardsReferences
- Sun L, Chen Q, Zhou L, Liu J. A comprehensive review with future perspectives of Rhizoma Cibotii (Gou Ji): botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and quality control . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2026) [DOI]
- Xu XR, Wang JY, Wang XY, Bi HZ, Bai QX, Wang M. Botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, processing, and applications of Cibotium barometz (L.) J. Sm.: A review . Fitoterapia (2025) [DOI]
- Jiang RH, Liang SQ, Wu F, Tang LM, Qin B, Chen YY, Huang YH, Li KX, Zhang XC. Phylogenomic analysis, cryptic species discovery, and DNA barcoding of the genus Cibotium in China based on plastome data . Frontiers in Plant Science (2023) [DOI]
- Liu S, Wang Z, Wang T, Su Y. The complete chloroplast genome of Cibotium barometz (Cibotiaceae), an endangered CITES medicinal fern . Mitochondrial DNA Part B (2018) [DOI]
- Wang FP, Chen LJ, Zhou SR, Tang M, Zhang X, Yan YH. Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses reveal temporal dynamics of secondary metabolite accumulation in Cibotium barometz rhizome . Frontiers in Plant Science (2025) [DOI]
- Li L, Xie MP, Sun H, Lu AQ, Zhang B, Zhang D, Wang SJ. Bioactive phenolic acid-substituted glycoses and glycosides from rhizomes of Cibotium barometz . Journal of Asian Natural Products Research (2019) [DOI]
- Ji Z, Fan B, Chen Y, Yue J, Chen J, Zhang R, Tong Y, Liu Z, Liang J, Duan L. Functional characterization of triterpene synthases in Cibotium barometz . Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology (2023) [DOI]
- Vetter J. The Norsesquiterpene Glycoside Ptaquiloside as a Poisonous, Carcinogenic Component of Certain Ferns . Molecules (2022) [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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