Traditionally used for
- Digestion
- Menstrual & women's health
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
- Diabetes
☯ TCM Properties
Breaks up Blood Stasis and unblocks menstruation; Eliminates parasites; Eliminates Wind-toxin; Clears Heat, cools the Blood and stops bleeding
Traditional Chinese Uses
Gui Jian Yu is the cork-winged twig of Euonymus alatus (Celastraceae), recorded since the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Bitter and cold (some sources neutral) and entering the Liver channel, it invigorates the Blood and breaks Blood stasis to unblock menstruation, and it kills parasites. It is used chiefly for stasis patterns: amenorrhea and irregular menses, postpartum abdominal pain from retained lochia, fixed abdominal masses, and traumatic injury; classically it also addresses intestinal parasites and, in some texts, cools the Blood to stop bleeding and disperses wind-toxin skin lesions.
It is typically decocted around 4-9 g, or taken as pill, powder, or soaked in wine, and is combined with Blood-invigorating and menstruation-regulating herbs. As a Blood-breaking agent it is contraindicated in pregnancy and used cautiously with heavy menstrual bleeding.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Gui Jian Yu is derived from Euonymus alatus, the winged spindle tree or burning bush, a deciduous shrub of the family Celastraceae reaching 2 to 4 metres in height. The species is immediately recognisable by its young branches, which develop two to four prominent, longitudinal, corky wings of suberous tissue running along the green stems; these winged twigs are the part collected for medicinal use. Leaves are opposite, elliptic to obovate, 3 to 8 centimetres long, with finely serrate margins, turning a brilliant crimson in autumn. Inconspicuous greenish-yellow four-petalled flowers borne in spring give rise to small, four-lobed, reddish-purple capsules that split to expose seeds enveloped in bright orange arils. The shrub grows in mixed woodland, on slopes, and along stream banks throughout much of northeastern Asia.
Active Constituents
Quercetin
FlavonolConcentration: a principal flavonoid of the leaves and winged twigs; content not standardised across sources
Isolated from Euonymus alatus and shown to improve insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes while acting as a weak partial PPAR-gamma agonist that does not itself drive adipocyte differentiation. It also suppressed lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production in macrophages.
Kaempferol
FlavonolConcentration: a principal flavonoid of the leaves and winged twigs; content not standardised across sources
Isolated alongside quercetin from Euonymus alatus, with the same profile: improved glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, weak partial PPAR-gamma agonism without adipogenesis, and competition with rosiglitazone at the PPAR-gamma binding pocket.
Rutin
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin-3-O-rutinoside)Concentration: reported from the leaves and winged twigs; not quantified in a standardised way
Reported as an aldose reductase inhibitor with an IC50 near 3 microM, the polyol-pathway mechanism most often invoked for the herb's traditional use in diabetic complications.
Quercitrin
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside)Concentration: reported from leaves and wings
A noncompetitive aldose reductase inhibitor reported from the plant, contributing with rutin to the polyol-pathway activity attributed to the herb.
Dulcitol (galactitol)
Sugar alcohol (polyol)Concentration: characteristic constituent of the winged twig; concentration not standardised
Known in Chinese sources as wei mao chun, dulcitol is a chemotaxonomic marker of the drug. It has no established pharmacological activity of its own and is best treated as an identity marker rather than an active.
Friedelin and epifriedelanol
Friedelane triterpenoidsConcentration: reported from the winged twigs; not quantified
Characteristic triterpenoids of the corky wings, listed in Chinese pharmacognosy as marker constituents of the drug.
Lupeol and lupenone
Lupane triterpenoidsConcentration: isolated from the corks of the winged twig
Part of the triterpenoid fraction of the cork wings. In the phytochemical study that isolated them, triterpenoids and phenolics from the corks inhibited protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B non-competitively with IC50 values from 5.6 to 18.4 microM, and several phenolics inhibited alpha-glucosidase with IC50 values near 9-11 microM. This is enzyme-level work only.
Acovenosigenin A 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside, euonymoside A and euonymusoside A
Cardenolides (cardiac glycosides)Concentration: isolated from the wood of Euonymus alatus; content in the medicinal winged twig has not been quantified
Three cytotoxic cardenolides isolated from Euonymus alatus wood, all showing potent cytotoxicity against neoplastic cell lines. Their presence in the genus is the reason cardiac-glycoside caution is raised for this herb, but the isolation was from wood, the amounts were not quantified for the winged-twig drug, and no cardioactivity has been demonstrated at clinical doses.
Alatamine, alatusamine, alatusinine, evonine and neoevonine
Sesquiterpene pyridine alkaloids (dihydro-beta-agarofuran type, Celastraceae)Concentration: minor constituents; not quantified in the crude drug
The characteristic Celastraceae alkaloid class of the plant, some first described from Euonymus alatus forma striatus. They are reported as constituents without established clinical pharmacology in this species.
beta-Sitosterol and daucosterol
Phytosterol and its glucosideConcentration: reported from the winged twigs
Ubiquitous plant sterols reported among the drug's constituents; listed for completeness rather than for any species-specific activity.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Insulin, sulfonylureas, metformin and other glucose-lowering drugs
Euonymus alatus has repeatable glucose-lowering activity in animals and identified molecular mechanisms. A 50% ethanol extract at 350 and 700 mg/kg for 10 weeks corrected hyperinsulinaemia and hyperlipidaemia in high-fat-diet ICR mice, with metformin 250 mg/kg as the comparator. In streptozotocin-plus-uninephrectomy rats it lowered HbA1c, improved lipids, reduced 24-hour urine protein and downregulated TGF-beta1. At the molecular level, kaempferol and quercetin from the plant improve insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in adipocytes and act as weak partial PPAR-gamma agonists, and cork-wing constituents inhibit PTP1B and alpha-glucosidase in the low micromolar range. Human evidence is weak: the published clinical work is small, mostly Chinese-language, and uses multi-herb formulas, so an effect cannot be attributed to this herb alone.
Clinical note: If a patient on insulin or a sulfonylurea starts a formula containing Gui Jian Yu, ask them to monitor capillary glucose more closely for the first two to three weeks and review the conventional dose rather than assuming no effect.
Digoxin and other cardiac glycosides
Three cardenolides - acovenosigenin A 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside, euonymoside A and euonymusoside A - have been isolated from Euonymus alatus wood and are cytotoxic in cell lines. Euonymus is a Celastraceae genus in which cardenolides genuinely occur, so the class is real rather than assumed. However, no study has quantified cardenolide content in the winged twig that is actually dispensed, and no cardiac effect has been demonstrated for the crude drug in any species. Treat this as an unquantified possibility, not a demonstrated interaction.
Clinical note: Not a reason to withhold the herb, but if a patient on digoxin develops unexplained symptoms or an odd digoxin level while taking a Gui Jian Yu formula, consider the herb rather than dismissing it.
Anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs (warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants, aspirin, clopidogrel)
Gui Jian Yu is used in Chinese medicine to break blood stasis and unblock menstruation. No coagulation, platelet-function or pharmacokinetic study of Euonymus alatus in humans or animals has been published, so this is a category-based caution only, with no measured effect to size it against.
Clinical note: Note it in the record and ask about bruising or bleeding at review; do not present it to the patient as an established interaction.
Uterotonic and abortifacient risk in pregnancy
The Ming compendium Ben Cao Pin Hui Jing Yao states plainly of Gui Jian Yu that it must not be taken in pregnancy, and modern Chinese materia medica carry the contraindication forward. The traditional indication set - amenorrhoea, abdominal masses, postpartum stasis pain - is exactly the blood-moving profile that underlies the prohibition. No modern reproductive-toxicology study of Euonymus alatus has been published, so the strength of this entry rests on the consistency of the traditional record, not on animal data.
Clinical note: Do not prescribe in pregnancy or when pregnancy is possible and unconfirmed. Also avoid in patients with no blood-stasis pattern, per the traditional restriction.
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
5
2 verified · 3 unverified
Show 5 studies
- Euonymus alatus prevents the hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia induced by high-fat diet in ICR mice
- Euonymus alatus in the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy in Rats
- Kaempferol and quercetin isolated from Euonymus alatus improve glucose uptake of 3T3-L1 cells without adipogenesis activity
- Chemical Constituents of Euonymus alatus (Thunb.) Sieb. and Their PTP1B and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities
- Cytotoxic Cardenolides from Woods of Euonymus alata.
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
Euonymus alatus prevents the hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia induced by high-fat diet in ICR mice
ICR mice on a high-fat diet received a 50% ethanol extract of Euonymus alatus at 350 or 700 mg/kg, or metformin 250 mg/kg, for 10 weeks. The extract reduced body weight dose-dependently and corrected the associated hyperinsulinaemia and hyperlipidaemia. The effect was not secondary to reduced food intake but tracked changes in hepatic lipogenic gene expression (SREBP-1a, FAS, GPAT) and PPAR-gamma expression in periepididymal fat, with reduced hepatic triglyceride deposition.
Euonymus alatus in the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy in Rats
Diabetic nephropathy was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by uninephrectomy plus streptozotocin, and Euonymus alatus was gavaged for 12 weeks against irbesartan as positive control. The herb lowered HbA1c, improved blood lipids, reduced 24-hour urine protein and preserved kidney function, and on histology reduced extracellular matrix expansion and glomerulosclerosis. The proposed mechanism was downregulation of transforming growth factor beta-1.
Kaempferol and quercetin isolated from Euonymus alatus improve glucose uptake of 3T3-L1 cells without adipogenesis activity
Kaempferol and quercetin isolated from Euonymus alatus significantly improved insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Both behaved as weak partial PPAR-gamma agonists in a reporter assay, competed with rosiglitazone for the same binding pocket, and, unlike rosiglitazone, did not induce preadipocyte differentiation - in fact inhibiting rosiglitazone-driven differentiation dose-dependently. Both also suppressed lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production in PPAR-gamma-overexpressing macrophages more potently than rosiglitazone.
Chemical Constituents of Euonymus alatus (Thunb.) Sieb. and Their PTP1B and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities
Phytochemical study of the corks of the winged twig - the part actually dispensed as Gui Jian Yu - yielding a novel 3-hydroxycoumarinflavanol together with ten triterpenoids, ten phenolic derivatives and two flavonoid glycosides. Six compounds inhibited protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B non-competitively with IC50 values from 5.6 to 18.4 microM, and three inhibited alpha-glucosidase with IC50 values of 10.5, 9.5 and 9.1 microM. Enzyme-level evidence only, with no cellular or in vivo confirmation in this paper.
Cytotoxic Cardenolides from Woods of Euonymus alata.
Three cytotoxic cardenolides were isolated from the wood of Euonymus alatus: acovenosigenin A 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside, euonymoside A, and a new compound euonymusoside A, characterised as acovenosigenin A 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl(1-6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl(1-4)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside. All three showed potent cytotoxicity against neoplastic cell lines. This is the primary evidence that the species contains cardiac glycosides, and it comes from wood rather than from the winged twig used medicinally.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynastyMing Yi Bie Lu
Han to Jin dynastiesRi Hua Zi Ben Cao
Five Dynasties to early SongBen Cao Pin Hui Jing Yao
Ming dynastyReferences
- Zhai X, Lenon GB, Xue CCL, Li CG. Euonymus alatus: A Review on Its Phytochemistry and Antidiabetic Activity . Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2016) [DOI]
- Fan L, Zhang C, Ai L, Wang L, Li L, Fan W, Li R, He L, Wu C, Huang Y. Traditional uses, botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, separation and analysis technologies of Euonymus alatus (Thunb.) Siebold: A comprehensive review . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2020) [DOI]
- Ishiwata H, Shizuri Y, Yamada K. Three sesquiterpene alkaloids from Euonymus alatus forma Striatus . Phytochemistry (1983) [DOI]
- Ishikura N, Sato S, Kurosawa K. Kaempferol 3-rhamnosylxyloside from Euonymus alatus . Phytochemistry (1976) [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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