Traditionally used for
- Digestion
- Nerves & recovery
☯ TCM Properties
Nourishes and invigorates the body, removes stasis, relieves convulsions, soothes the nerves, warms the Stomach and benefits the Intestines
Traditional Chinese Uses
Hai Xing is the dried body of the starfish Asterias rollestoni (and related Asteroidea), a minor animal substance in Chinese folk medicine, bitter and salty with a neutral nature, entering the Heart, Stomach and Large Intestine channels. It is traditionally used to control stomach acid and ease epigastric pain in chronic gastric and duodenal ulcer, to warm the Stomach and benefit the Intestines, and to settle the spirit and relieve convulsions. Regional use also includes softening and dispersing scrofula and goitre-type nodules and nourishing and invigorating the body while dispelling stasis.
It is generally taken as a powder or in decoction. This is a folk remedy documented in local materia medica rather than a mainstream classical herb, and its use is not standardised in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Hai Xing refers to the dried bodies of starfish in the genus Asterias and related members of the class Asteroidea, and is therefore an animal- rather than plant-derived substance. The body is a flattened five-rayed star typically 10 to 25 centimetres across, with a central disc bearing the mouth on the underside and the madreporite (water-vascular intake) on the upper surface. Each arm carries a longitudinal groove on its undersurface lined with hundreds of small tube feet used for locomotion and prey capture, and the dorsal surface is sheathed in a leathery skin reinforced by small calcareous ossicles and bearing scattered pedicellariae. Source species are collected from rocky and sandy substrates of the coastal seas of China, then washed, sun-dried, and stored for medicinal use.
Active Constituents
SF-2 mannoglucan sulfate
Sulfated polysaccharideConcentration: Purified fraction from acid extraction of the defatted animal; composed of mannose and glucose and containing 13.85 percent sulfate
The most antioxidant of the starfish polysaccharide fractions and the one carrying the immune activity. In RAW 264.7 macrophages it raised nitric oxide production and upregulated TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, COX-2 and MMP-9, and it partly reversed cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression in mice. It also showed neuroprotective activity in a Parkinson's disease neurotoxicity model.
SF-1 glucan
Polysaccharide (glucan)Concentration: Purified fraction; a backbone of 1 to 3 linked beta-D-glucopyranose residues with a minor component having a 1 to 3 linked alpha-D-glucopyranose backbone
Less antioxidant than the sulfated fraction but likewise neuroprotective in the same Parkinson's disease neurotoxicity model. Beta-1,3-glucans of this kind are a common source of nonspecific immune stimulation across marine and fungal drugs, so the activity is not distinctive to starfish.
Asterosaponins
Steroidal saponin (sulfated steroid oligoglycosides)Concentration: About 0.023 g obtained per 100 g of dried Asterias rollestoni by methanol extraction, a lower yield than from Asterina pectinifera or the brittle star Ophiura kinbergi; melting point 175 to 178 degrees C
The characteristic secondary metabolites of starfish and the reason the animal is unpalatable to predators. They are identified in part by a haemolytic test, and membrane-lytic activity is a general property of the class, which matters for any parenteral or injected preparation. Oral saponins are poorly absorbed, so the haemolysis observed in vitro should not be read straight across to a decoction, but it does argue against injectable or concentrated extracts.
Forbeside E and amurensoside D
Steroid glycosideConcentration: Isolated as known compounds alongside two new tetrasaccharides from Asterias rollestoni
Named steroid glycosides of the animal. One of the accompanying tetrasaccharides was important enough to be resynthesised and its published structure revised in 2024, which is a reminder that starfish glycoside structures in the older literature are not all secure.
Nucleosides (hypoxanthine, uridine, xanthine, adenosine and others)
Nucleoside and purine baseConcentration: Seven nucleosides determined simultaneously by reversed-phase HPLC in Asterias rollestoni
Adenosine and its congeners are a substantial part of the small-molecule content of the animal. Practically this means the drug is purine-rich animal material, which is the usual reason to be cautious with such drugs in gout, and it makes nucleoside content a workable quality marker for an animal drug with no other assay.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Asterias amurensis Lutken (northern Pacific seastar) supplied as Hai Xing
The pinyin drug name Hai Xing is applied to more than one starfish, and Asterias amurensis and Asterias rollestoni are routinely used interchangeably; several records carry Asterias rollestoni as the binomial while giving Asterias amurensis as the Latin drug name. The two are different species. The chemistry work described here (the SF-1 and SF-2 polysaccharides, the tetrasaccharides, the nucleoside assay) was done on Asterias rollestoni, while a separate literature on ceramides and cerebrosides exists for Asterias amurensis. No comparative study has established whether the two are pharmacologically equivalent, so equivalence is an assumption, not a finding.
Clinical note: Record which binomial the supplier states. Do not cite Asterias rollestoni polysaccharide data in support of a product labelled Asterias amurensis or the reverse.
Immunosuppressant therapy (ciclosporin, tacrolimus, azathioprine, mycophenolate, cyclophosphamide)
The SF-2 fraction is directly immunostimulant in preclinical models: it activated macrophages and raised pro-inflammatory cytokines in vitro, and in mice it counteracted cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression. Working against cyclophosphamide is exactly what is wanted in a chemotherapy-support model and exactly what is not wanted in transplant maintenance or autoimmune disease. There are no human data, and no study of the whole drug rather than the purified fraction.
Clinical note: Avoid in transplant recipients and in patients on immunosuppressants for autoimmune disease. The concern is stronger for concentrated polysaccharide extracts than for a conventional decoction of the whole animal.
Evidence Tier
Limited 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
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
2
2 verified · 0 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
The antioxidant activities and neuroprotective effect of polysaccharides from the starfish Asterias rollestoni
The defatted animal was extracted with dilute hydrochloric acid and the crude polysaccharide separated by anion exchange chromatography into SF-1, a mainly beta-1,3-glucan, and SF-2, a mannoglucan sulfate. SF-2 had the highest antioxidant activity of the fractions and both showed neuroprotective activity in a cell neurotoxicity model of Parkinson's disease. Cell-level work on purified fractions, not on the drug as dispensed.
The immunoenhancement effects of starfish Asterias rollestoni polysaccharides in macrophages and cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression mouse models
SF-2, the mannoglucan sulfate containing 13.85 percent sulfate, promoted nitric oxide production and upregulated TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, COX-2 and MMP-9 in RAW 264.7 macrophages, and produced immunoenhancement in cyclophosphamide-immunosuppressed mice. This is the only in vivo pharmacology located for the species and it uses a purified fraction, so it supports a mechanism rather than a clinical use.
References
- Zhang GY, Ren HH, Zhang YB, Ma LQ, Yang YL, Wang S, et al.. Chemical constituents of the starfish Asterias rollestoni Bell . Biochemical Systematics and Ecology (2013) [DOI]
- Liu A, Gao L, Tang X, Yang X, Liu X, Xie W, Qi J, Li W. Synthesis and Structural Revision of a Natural Tetrasaccharide from Starfish Asterias rollestoni Bell . Chemistry - A European Journal (2024) [DOI]
- Zhang D, Chen J, Zhou M, Shi Q, Zhao H, Cheng H, Yang H, Wang X. Simultaneous determination of 7 nucleosides in Asterias rollestoni using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography . Chinese Journal of Chromatography (2010) [DOI]
- Guo Chenghua, Cao Jianguo, Ning Qianji. Preparation and identification of asterosaponin from Asterias rollestoni Asterina pectinifera and Ophiura kinbergi . Chinese Journal of Marine Drugs (2000)
- Fu XM, Zhang MQ, Shao CL, Li GQ, Bai H, Dai GL, et al.. Chinese Marine Materia Medica Resources: Status and Potential . Marine Drugs (2016) [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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