He Huan Hua
StarAlbizia julibrissin Durazz.
Traditionally used for
- Eye health
- Digestion
- Sleep
- Mood & calm
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
☯ TCM Properties
Relieves Constraint and Calms the Spirit; Regulates Qi and opens the Stomach; Dispels Wind and Brightens the Eyes; Invigorates the collaterals and alleviates pain
Traditional Chinese Uses
He Huan Hua (albizzia flower, silk tree flower) is a neutral, sweet herb used in Chinese medicine to calm the Spirit and ease emotional distress. It is specifically indicated for emotional conditions arising from Liver Qi stagnation and Heart Shen disturbance — including depression, insomnia, irritability, poor memory, and grief. Lighter in action than He Huan Pi (the bark of the same tree), the flower is gentler and more appropriate as a daily herb for mood and sleep support in mild to moderate cases.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Albizia julibrissin, the silk tree or mimosa, is a small to medium deciduous tree in the Fabaceae growing 5-12 m tall with a broad, flat-topped, spreading crown and smooth grey-brown bark. The alternate leaves are large and bipinnate, 20-45 cm long, with 6-12 pairs of pinnae each bearing 20-30 pairs of small, oblong, asymmetrical leaflets that fold together at night. Flowers are borne in showy hemispherical heads at the branch tips in summer; each head appears as a powder-puff of numerous long pink to whitish stamens, the small calyx and tubular corolla being inconspicuous. Fruits are flat, papery, straw-coloured legumes 10-20 cm long. The dried flower clusters, collected in early summer just before full opening, constitute He Huan Hua.
Active Constituents
Quercitrin (quercetin 3-O-rhamnoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: the principal flavonoid of the flower; flavonoids are the compound class that distinguishes the flower from the bark
The marker flavonoid of Albiziae Flos. Flavonoids are concentrated in the flower while lignans and saponins are concentrated in the bark, and that difference is what the review literature holds responsible for the two drugs having different indications despite coming from one tree. Quercitrin increases pentobarbital-induced sleeping time in mice dose-dependently.
Quercetin
Flavonol aglyconeAbundant in the flower and identified by network pharmacology as the leading antidepressant-associated component of Albiziae Flos, acting through predicted targets DRD2, HTR1A and SLC6A4. Given to mice it prolongs sleeping time and shortens sleep latency after pentobarbital, and those effects are augmented by 5-hydroxytryptophan and are lost when serotonin synthesis is blocked, which points to a serotonergic mechanism.
Flavonol acylglycosides (3'-(E)-p-coumaroylquercitrin, 3'-(E)-feruloylquercitrin, 3'-(E)-cinnamoylquercitrin, 2'-(E)-cinnamoylquercitrin)
Acylated flavonol glycosidesThis group is documented specifically in the flowers and not the bark, so it is the most useful chemical evidence that He Huan Hua is a distinct drug rather than a weaker version of He Huan Pi. The reported activity is inhibition of fat accumulation in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, which has no bearing on the traditional calming indication.
Julibrosides (triterpenoid saponins, e.g. julibroside C1, J8, J28)
Oleanane-type triterpenoid saponinsConcentration: predominantly documented in the bark; present across the plant, with about 140 compounds isolated from bark and flowers together
The saponin family of the species. Julibroside C1 is anxiolytic in mice in the elevated plus maze at 0.5-1 mg/kg, an effect blocked by a 5-HT1A antagonist and by GABA-A and benzodiazepine-site antagonists. Practitioners should note these saponins are mainly reported from the bark, so the anxiolytic saponin data belong more to He Huan Pi than to the flower.
Lignan glycosides
Lignan glycosidesConcentration: characteristic of the stem bark, where 26 lignans have been isolated
Two lignan glycosides from this species inhibit the serotonin transporter noncompetitively, lowering Vmax with little change in Km and shifting SERT toward an outward-closed conformation without altering transporter expression, which is a mechanism distinct from that of conventional SSRIs. As with the saponins, lignans belong chemically to the bark, so this is species-level rather than flower-specific evidence.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Barbiturates, benzodiazepines, z-drugs and other sedative-hypnotics
This is the best-supported interaction for the flower and it is directly demonstrated rather than inferred. Flos Albiziae aqueous extract and quercetin both potentiated pentobarbital-induced sleep in mice, prolonging sleeping time and shortening latency dose-dependently, and at a sub-hypnotic pentobarbital dose (28 mg/kg) they significantly increased the rate of sleep onset. Julibroside C1's anxiolytic effect in mice was blocked by flumazenil and bicuculline, implicating the GABA-A benzodiazepine site as well. The work is in mice, not people.
Clinical note: Expect additive drowsiness when the herb is added to a hypnotic or anxiolytic, especially at night. Warn about driving in the first days of a course, and consider that a patient's existing hypnotic dose may need review rather than the herb being stopped.
SSRIs, SNRIs and other serotonergic antidepressants
Two lines of evidence converge on the serotonin system. The hypnotic effect of Flos Albiziae extract and quercetin in mice was augmented by 5-hydroxytryptophan and reversed the insomnia caused by p-chlorophenylalanine, an inhibitor of serotonin synthesis. Separately, two lignan glycosides from the species inhibit the serotonin transporter allosterically, and network pharmacology identifies SLC6A4 (the serotonin transporter) and HTR1A among the main predicted targets of the flower's active components. No serotonin syndrome case has been reported with this herb, so the concern is mechanistic.
Clinical note: Do not treat this as a reason to withhold the herb, but do record it as part of the serotonergic load. If a patient on an SSRI develops agitation, tremor, sweating or clonus after starting a He Huan Hua formula, stop the herb and reassess.
He Huan Pi (Albiziae Cortex), the bark of the same tree
Hehuan bark and Hehuan flowers are entered separately in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia with different properties, and the comparison review attributes that to a real compositional split: flavonoids sit mainly in the flowers while lignans and saponins sit mainly in the bark. Much of the anxiolytic and antidepressant animal literature attributed to this species was in fact done on bark extracts or bark-derived saponins, so bark evidence should not be read across to the flower, and the two should not be treated as interchangeable at the dispensary.
Clinical note: Check which part has been supplied. If a formula already contains He Huan Pi, adding He Huan Hua is not a neutral addition of a second herb.
Pregnancy (use alongside any uterotonic or in threatened miscarriage)
The herb carries a traditional caution in pregnancy on the grounds of a mild blood-invigorating action, and the review literature notes that toxicology, pharmacokinetics and quality standards for this drug all remain to be established. There is no reproductive toxicology study and no reported human harm; the caution is classical, not experimental, and should be presented that way.
Clinical note: Avoid in pregnancy in line with the traditional caution rather than because a specific risk has been shown. Do not claim safety either, since the safety data simply do not exist.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 5–10 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】5～10g。 【性味与归经】甘，平。归心、肝经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 4 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
3
1 verified · 2 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Flos Albiziae aqueous extract and its active constituent quercetin potentiate the hypnotic effect of pentobarbital via the serotonergic system
- Anxiolytic effects of Julibroside C1 isolated from Albizzia julibrissin in mice
- Two Lignan Glycosides from Albizia julibrissin Durazz. Noncompetitively Inhibit Serotonin Transporter
Other / unclassified
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Flos Albiziae aqueous extract and its active constituent quercetin potentiate the hypnotic effect of pentobarbital via the serotonergic system
Flos Albiziae extract and quercetin each potentiated pentobarbital-induced sleep in mice dose-dependently, prolonging sleeping time and shortening latency, and at a sub-hypnotic pentobarbital dose both increased the rate of sleep onset synergistically with 5-hydroxytryptophan. Pretreatment with p-chlorophenylalanine, which blocks serotonin synthesis, shortened sleeping time and lengthened latency, and both the extract and quercetin significantly reversed that. This is the direct experimental basis for both the traditional sedative use of the flower and the sedative drug interaction.
Anxiolytic effects of Julibroside C1 isolated from Albizzia julibrissin in mice
Julibroside C1, a saponin from this species, increased open-arm time and open-arm entries in the elevated plus maze in mice at 0.5 and 1 mg/kg without changing locomotor activity or causing myorelaxation. The effect at 0.5 mg/kg was blocked by WAY-100635 (5-HT1A antagonist), bicuculline (GABA-A antagonist) and flumazenil (benzodiazepine-site antagonist), and receptor autoradiography showed reduced 8-OH-DPAT binding in hippocampal CA1 and reduced flunitrazepam binding in cingulate cortex. Note that the julibrosides are predominantly documented from the bark rather than the flower.
Two Lignan Glycosides from Albizia julibrissin Durazz. Noncompetitively Inhibit Serotonin Transporter
Two lignan glycosides isolated from this species inhibited the serotonin transporter noncompetitively, decreasing Vmax with little change in Km, without altering total or cell-surface transporter expression. They reduced accessibility of a cysteine placed in the extracellular permeation pathway, indicating a conformational shift toward an outward-closed SERT state, consistent with docking to an allosteric site. The mechanism differs from that of conventional antidepressants. Lignans are characteristic of the bark rather than the flower.
Network Pharmacology-based Research of Active Components of Albiziae Flos and Mechanisms of Its Antidepressant Effect
A component-target-pathway network built for Albiziae Flos identified quercetin and four other components as the main putative antidepressant actives, acting mainly through monoaminergic neurotransmitter, cAMP signalling and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathways, with DRD2, HTR1A and SLC6A4 as key targets. This is a computational prediction offering direction for further study, not experimental confirmation of any of those targets.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynastyReferences
- Lu P, Zhang C, Zheng J, Li C, Zhang Q, Huang B. A comparison review of Hehuan flowers and Hehuan bark on the traditional applications, phytochemistry and pharmacological effects . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2023) [DOI]
- Yang Y, Kwon CH, Ham YM, Ha MW. Pharmacological Spectrum of Substances Derived from Albizia julibrissin Durazz . International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2025) [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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