Chinese hibiscus
StarHibiscus rosa-sinensis
Synonyms: Hibiscus arnottii, Hibiscus sinensis grandiflorus, Hibiscus tricolor, Hibiscus metallicus, Hibiscus rosiflorus, Hibiscus fulgens, Hibiscus rosiflorus var. simplex, Hibiscus denisonii, Hibiscus festalis, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. variegatus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. flavoplenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis albo-pleno, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis aurantia-pleno, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. rubroplenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. genuinus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. fulgidus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. luteoplenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. vivicans, Hibiscus miniatus-semiplenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. kermesinus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis miniata-semiplenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis flavus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis carminata-perfecta, Hibiscus colleri, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis albovariegatus, Hibiscus fulgidus, Hibiscus carminata-perfecta, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis colleri, Hibiscus androphoropetaloides, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. lucien-lindenii, Hibiscus rosiflorus var. plenus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. magnificus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. zebrinus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. flore-pleno, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis var. carneoplenus
Western Herbalism Properties
Gallery
Botanical Description
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, the Chinese hibiscus or shoeflower, is an evergreen flowering shrub in the family Malvaceae of uncertain wild origin, probably arising as a cultigen in tropical Asia and now grown throughout the tropics and subtropics as an ornamental. It reaches 2 to 5 metres in height with glossy dark-green leaves that are ovate to broadly lanceolate, 7 to 15 centimetres long, with coarsely toothed margins and acuminate tips. The showy solitary flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils, with a campanulate calyx subtended by 5 to 8 linear epicalyx bracts, and five large overlapping petals 6 to 15 centimetres across in colours ranging from red, pink, orange, yellow to white; double-flowered cultivars are common. A characteristic feature is the prominent staminal column extending well beyond the petals, bearing numerous anthers and terminating in a five-branched stigma. The fruit is a five-celled capsule, often not produced in cultivated double forms. Flowering occurs year-round in warm climates.
Active Constituents
Anthocyanins (cyanidin and pelargonidin glycosides)
Anthocyanin (flavonoid pigment)Concentration: The pigment fraction of the flower; content varies with cultivar and flower colour, and no standardised figure exists for the drug
The red flower pigments, responsible for the radical-scavenging activity measured in DPPH and ABTS assays of flower extracts and for the plant's use as a dye and as a pH and metal-ion indicator. Antioxidant capacity in a cuvette is not a clinical effect, and none has been demonstrated for these pigments in this species.
Quercetin and kaempferol glycosides
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: Reported across flower, leaf and root in phytochemical surveys of the species
Common dietary flavonols, present here at concentrations that have not been quantified for any medicinal preparation of this plant. They account for much of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory signal seen in extract screening, and are shared with a very large number of edible plants.
Mucilage (leaf and flower polysaccharide)
Polysaccharide (mucilage)Concentration: Abundant in leaf and flower; extracted readily enough that it is studied as a pharmaceutical excipient in its own right
A hydrophilic, pH-stable gel-forming polymer with a high swelling index, investigated as a sustained-release matrix for metformin tablets, hydrogels, beads and nanoparticle systems. It is the basis of the plant's traditional emollient and hair-conditioning use, and its pharmaceutical interest is as an excipient rather than as an active constituent.
Cyclopropenoid fatty acids (sterculic acid and malvalic acid)
Cyclopropenoid fatty acidConcentration: Reported from the stem, alongside beta-sitosterol and taraxeryl acetate
The characteristic cyclopropenoid fatty acids of the Malvaceae, recognised antinutritional constituents that inhibit stearoyl-CoA desaturase and alter fatty acid composition in animals fed Malvaceae seed oils. Their presence is a reason not to assume that a lipid-soluble extract of the woody parts is equivalent in safety to a water infusion of the flower.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Hibiscus sabdariffa (roselle, sour tea, zobo) - misattribution of interaction data
Essentially all of the human evidence circulating under the word hibiscus - the randomised trials and meta-analyses of blood pressure and cardiometabolic markers, the antidiabetic and antilipidaemic trial data, and the reported pharmacokinetic interactions, including an effect of a Hibiscus sabdariffa water extract on paracetamol pharmacokinetics in human volunteers and interactions reported with hydrochlorothiazide and with erlotinib - concerns Hibiscus sabdariffa, the roselle calyx. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is a different species with a different plant part in use and a different constituent profile, and it has no comparable human trial or pharmacokinetic literature at all. Carrying a sabdariffa interaction across to this record would be an error of species, not a conservative precaution.
Clinical note: Do not apply Hibiscus sabdariffa cautions - the antihypertensive additive effect, the paracetamol or diuretic pharmacokinetic warnings - to this herb, and do not tell a patient that this plant lowers blood pressure on the strength of roselle trials. If a patient is drinking a hibiscus tea, establish which species it is.
Fertility treatment and attempts at conception (male and female)
Antifertility activity is the oldest and most consistently reproduced finding for Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, running from work published in Planta Medica in 1977 through to recent rodent studies reporting impaired seminal parameters after aqueous flower extract. The effects reported in rodents include antispermatogenic and anti-implantation activity, and the plant has a corresponding traditional use as a contraceptive in Indian practice. All of it is animal data; no human fertility study exists, and the dose-response relationship for a human preparation is unknown.
Clinical note: Avoid in patients trying to conceive and in men being investigated for subfertility. Equally, do not present the herb to a patient as a contraceptive - the animal data are nowhere near sufficient to rely on for that purpose.
Oral medicines taken together with leaf or flower preparations
The leaf and flower mucilage is a high-swelling, gel-forming hydrocolloid, studied specifically because a mucilage matrix retards drug release - the published application is a sustained-release metformin formulation with zero-order or Higuchi kinetics. The same property in a mucilaginous decoction taken by mouth would be expected to slow the dissolution and absorption of a co-administered drug. Formulation science rather than a clinical observation, but the mechanism is well characterised.
Clinical note: Separate mucilaginous preparations from oral medicines by about two hours, particularly for narrow-therapeutic-index drugs and for immediate-release formulations where onset matters.
Antidiabetic drugs (metformin, sulfonylureas, insulin)
Review-level summaries of this species report glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol lowering and reduced postprandial glucose absorption in animal models, with docking studies implicating flavonoid inhibition of alpha-glucosidase. That is secondary literature over animal and in silico work; there is no human pharmacodynamic study of this species, and the effect size in a person is unknown.
Clinical note: Reasonable to ask a diabetic patient to check capillary glucose a little more often when starting the herb, but not to adjust hypoglycaemic doses in anticipation.
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
1 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
Toxicological Evaluation, Ultrasound-Assisted Phytochemicals, Antioxidant, GC–MS, FTIR, and In Vivo Analysis of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Flowers
Ultrasound-assisted extracts of the flower were profiled by GC-MS and FTIR, with methanol extract showing the highest DPPH (86.45%) and ABTS (91.12%) radical scavenging. A sub-acute toxicity study in 25 male Sprague-Dawley rats compared flower powder at 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight and extracts against placebo. This is the most directly safety-relevant primary study available for this species, and it is a short-term rodent study in males only; it does not address reproductive endpoints, chronic exposure, or human dosing.
STUDIES ON THE ANTIFERTILITY POTENTIALITY OF HIBISCUS ROSA SINENSIS
The foundational rodent work on the antifertility activity of this species, which established the effect that later studies have repeatedly reproduced and which underlies the traditional contraceptive use of the flower in India. Animal data from 1977, reported to standards well short of modern reproductive toxicology, and it is cited here as the origin of a caution rather than as a demonstration of efficacy.
Historical Texts
Ayurvedic nighantu literature, where the flower is Japa or Japapushpa
Classical and later Ayurvedic materia medicaBen Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), Li Shizhen, entry for Fu Sang
Ming dynasty, 1596References
- Amtaghri S.; Qabouche A.; Slaoui M.; Eddouks M.. A Comprehensive Overview of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.: Its Ethnobotanical Uses, Phytochemistry, Therapeutic Uses, Pharmacological Activities, and Toxicology . Endocrine, Metabolic and Immune Disorders - Drug Targets (2024) [DOI]
- Raza H.; Sultan M. T.; Ahmad K.; Maaz M.; Zafar S.; Noman A. M.; Al Jbawi E. M.. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis: A Multifunctional Flower Bridging Nutrition, Medicine, and Molecular Therapeutics . Food Science and Nutrition (2025) [DOI]
- Kizza N. R.; Bukke S. P. N.; Yahaya U. H.; Bot Y. S.. Natural polymers in diabetes management: formulation prospects of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis mucilage for metformin sustained release . Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (2026) [DOI]
- Ellis L. R.; Zulfiqar S.; Holmes M.; Marshall L.; Dye L.; Boesch C.. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa on blood pressure and cardiometabolic markers . Nutrition Reviews (2022) [DOI]
- Kolawole J. A.; Maduenyi A.. Effect of zobo drink (Hibiscus sabdariffa water extract) on the pharmacokinetics of acetaminophen in human volunteers . European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (2004) [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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