Huang Teng Gen
StarFibraurea recisa Pierre
Traditionally used for
- Eye health
- Nose & throat
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Nerves & recovery
- Blood pressure
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Young children
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, descends Fire, disperses Wind, reduces Blood pressure and removes numbness
Traditional Chinese Uses
Huang Teng (the bright-yellow root and woody stem of Fibraurea recisa, Menispermaceae) is a bitter, cold heat-clearing herb rich in protoberberine alkaloids, entering the Liver and Heart channels. It clears Heat and drains Fire, resolves toxicity, and moves the bowels, and is used for toxic-heat sores, boils, and swellings, red swollen painful eyes, sore throat, and Damp-Heat diarrhea and dysentery. Like the related Coptis, its bitter cold nature makes it a broadly antimicrobial detoxifying herb.
Entering the Liver, it also descends ascendant Liver Fire and disperses Wind, and folk use extends to lowering raised blood pressure, calming skin itching, and relieving numbness. The decocted stem is a household remedy in southern China and Vietnam for "clearing heat" and settling the stomach. It is given in decoction; being cold and bitter it is used cautiously in Spleen-Stomach cold-deficiency.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Huang Teng Gen is the root (and woody stem) of Fibraurea recisa Pierre (Menispermaceae), a large woody dioecious vine of evergreen broadleaved forests in southern Yunnan, Guangxi, and Vietnam. The woody stem may reach 10 cm diameter and many meters in length, with a deeply furrowed grayish-brown bark; the wood and bitter yellow inner bark are intensely yellow due to high content of protoberberine alkaloids (palmatine, jatrorrhizine, berberine). Alternate, leathery, broadly ovate to elliptic leaves are 10-25 cm long, with three to five prominent palmate veins and long petioles. Small yellowish-green flowers in axillary panicles produce ellipsoid yellow drupes 2-3 cm long. Used in southern Chinese and Dai ethnomedicine to clear heat-toxin, treat dysentery, conjunctivitis, sore throat, and abscesses, the plant's alkaloid profile underlies its activity against enteric pathogens. Sustainability concerns have arisen due to wild harvesting.
Active Constituents
Palmatine
Protoberberine isoquinoline alkaloidThe principal alkaloid of this drug, and the point on which it differs most from the other yellow bitter antibacterials. In Huang Bai and Huang Lian berberine predominates; in Fibraurea recisa palmatine does, with berberine present as a secondary component. Pharmacological work on this plant, from the antifungal assays to the chronic urticaria and Alzheimer network analyses, converges on palmatine as the lead compound.
Jatrorrhizine
Protoberberine isoquinoline alkaloidA major secondary alkaloid of the vine stem, isolated alongside palmatine and berberine. It has been identified as one of the primary active alkaloids in network-pharmacology screens of this plant.
Berberine
Protoberberine isoquinoline alkaloidPresent, but as a minor partner to palmatine rather than the dominant alkaloid. This matters for safety read-across: the human ciclosporin and bilirubin-displacement data all concern berberine, and this drug delivers considerably less of it per gram than Cortex Phellodendri does.
Columbamine
Protoberberine isoquinoline alkaloidA further protoberberine of the vine stem. The water-soluble protoberberine fraction as a whole, rather than any single member of it, was identified as the antifungal principle of the fresh stem.
Fibraurin
Clerodane diterpenoid (furanoid lactone)The constituent that is genuinely specific to this drug. Clerodane furanolactones of this type do not occur in Phellodendron or Coptis, so fibraurin is what chemically separates Huang Teng from the other berberine-family drugs rather than merely ranking it among them. It is reported as a major component of both wild and cultivated material.
Fibleucin
Clerodane diterpenoidA second Fibraurea clerodane isolated from the vine stems. Clerodanes from this species have since been reported to inhibit hepatic gluconeogenesis in vitro, which is a distinct line of activity from the alkaloids.
Tetrahydropalmatine
Tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloidThe reduced, non-quaternary counterpart of palmatine, isolated from cultivated material. Tetrahydroprotoberberines of this class are centrally active rather than merely antimicrobial, which is relevant to the sedative and antidepressant effects reported for the total alkaloid fraction.
Oleanolic acid
Pentacyclic triterpenoidA widely distributed triterpene acid recovered from cultivated stems along with beta-sitosterol and daucosterol. It is not a marker for this species.
⚠ Drug Interactions
CYP3A4 substrates (e.g. midazolam, ciclosporin, tacrolimus)
Palmatine and jatrorrhizine, the two alkaloids that dominate this drug, inhibit CYP3A4. The evidence for that comes from work on Fibraurea tinctoria, the Southeast Asian congener, not from Fibraurea recisa itself, so it is a read-across between two closely related species rather than a direct finding for this one. The much larger berberine literature is only partly applicable here, because berberine is a minor constituent of this plant.
Clinical note: Treat as a plausible CYP3A4 interaction rather than a proven one. For transplant patients and other narrow-index CYP3A4 substrates, monitor as you would for a berberine-bearing herb rather than assuming this drug is different because the alkaloid is different.
Fibraurea tinctoria and other yellow-stemmed Menispermaceae sold as Huang Teng
Fibraurea tinctoria is used interchangeably with Fibraurea recisa across the Southeast Asian range where much of this material originates, and a substantial part of the published chemistry attributed to Huang Teng is actually work on Fibraurea tinctoria. The record's own Latin name, given as a Daemonorops root drug, points at a different plant family altogether: Daemonorops is the palm that yields Xue Jie, dragon's blood resin, which is a haemostatic and blood-invigorating drug with no relation to this one.
Clinical note: Confirm the botanical source and the plant part. The pharmacopoeial drug is the vine stem, not the root, despite the -gen ending on the pinyin name, and it should never be filled from a dragon's blood stock bin.
Neonatal use and drugs raising unconjugated bilirubin
The bilirubin-albumin displacement that underlies the kernicterus contraindication is a documented property of berberine specifically. Berberine is present in this drug but is not its dominant alkaloid, and the Singapore restriction that codified the concern names Coptis and Phellodendron, not Fibraurea. No displacement data exist for palmatine, so the risk here is inferred from a minor constituent rather than established for the drug.
Clinical note: Avoid in newborns and jaundiced infants on precautionary grounds, but do not present this as the same established contraindication that applies to Huang Bai and Huang Lian.
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
- Antifungal alkaloids from the fresh rattan stem of Fibraurea recisa Pierre.
- Clerodane diterpenoids from the vine stems of Fibraurea recisa Pierre and their hepatic gluconeogenesis inhibitory activity
- Antidepressant effects of total alkaloids of Fibraurea recisa on improving corticosterone-induced apoptosis of HT-22 cells and chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depressive-like behaviour in mice
- Metabolomics combined with molecular docking and dynamics simulation to investigate the mechanism of action of Fibraurea recisa Pierre in the treatment of chronic urticaria
- Isoquinoline Alkaloids From Fibraurea recisa With Anti‐acetylcholinesterase Activity
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
Antifungal alkaloids from the fresh rattan stem of Fibraurea recisa Pierre.
The fresh rattan stem is an ethnoremedy for skin disease among the Yao, Zhuang and Miao of Yunnan. Extracts and isolated compounds were screened by agar diffusion and checkerboard microdilution against nine Candida strains and one Cryptococcus strain. The water-soluble protoberberine alkaloids were identified as the most important antifungal substances in the drug.
Clerodane diterpenoids from the vine stems of Fibraurea recisa Pierre and their hepatic gluconeogenesis inhibitory activity
Clerodane diterpenoids were isolated from the vine stems and tested for inhibition of hepatic gluconeogenesis. It is the diterpenoid rather than the alkaloid fraction that is doing the work here, which is a line of activity with no counterpart in Phellodendron or Coptis and is specific to this genus.
Antidepressant effects of total alkaloids of Fibraurea recisa on improving corticosterone-induced apoptosis of HT-22 cells and chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depressive-like behaviour in mice
The total alkaloid fraction reduced corticosterone-induced apoptosis in HT-22 hippocampal cells and improved depressive-like behaviour in mice under chronic unpredictable mild stress. A central effect of this kind is not part of the classical heat-clearing indication and is more plausibly attributable to the non-quaternary tetrahydroprotoberberines than to palmatine itself.
Metabolomics combined with molecular docking and dynamics simulation to investigate the mechanism of action of Fibraurea recisa Pierre in the treatment of chronic urticaria
A metabolomics study with docking and dynamics simulation, concluding that palmatine is the constituent responsible for the effect in chronic urticaria through anti-inflammatory and autophagy-regulating actions. The computational component is predictive, not confirmatory, so the mechanism should be read as a hypothesis supported by the metabolomic data rather than as a demonstrated pathway.
Isoquinoline Alkaloids From Fibraurea recisa With Anti‐acetylcholinesterase Activity
Isoquinoline alkaloids isolated from Fibraurea recisa were assayed for acetylcholinesterase inhibition. This is in vitro enzyme work on isolated compounds and does not establish any clinical anticholinesterase effect for the crude drug, but it does mean the plant's alkaloids are not pharmacologically confined to the antimicrobial role the traditional indication implies.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynastyReferences
- Su, Chung-Ren; Ueng, Yune-Fang; Dung, Nguyen Xuan; Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, M.; Wu, Tian-Shung. Cytochrome P3A4 Inhibitors and Other Constituents of Fibraurea tinctoria . Journal of Natural Products (2007) [DOI]
- Wang, Shishuai; Ma, Yixuan; Huang, Yuping; Hu, Yuhui; Huang, Yushan; Wu, Yi. Potential bioactive compounds and mechanisms of Fibraurea recisa Pierre for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease analyzed by network pharmacology and molecular docking prediction . Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (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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