Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Sleep
- Mood & calm
- Heart & circulation
☯ TCM Properties
Calms the Spirit and Settles Fright; Calms the Heart and settles the ethereal and corporeal souls; Resolves Toxicity; Calms the Liver and Subdues Yang
Traditional Chinese Uses
Jin Bo (gold foil) is used in Chinese medicine primarily to settle the Heart, calm the Shen, and anchor internally rising Liver Yang. It appears in classical formulas for anxiety, insomnia, palpitations, and manic or agitated mental states attributed to excess Liver Fire or Phlegm-Fire disturbing the Heart. Its metal nature gives it weight and settling properties, and it is most often used to coat pills rather than as a stand-alone ingredient in decoctions.
Relationships
Full-screen graph →Click a node for details · double-click to expand it · Ctrl/⌘ + scroll or two fingers to zoom and pan.
Botanical Description
Jin Bo is metallic gold (Au, atomic number 79) prepared as extremely thin leaf or foil for medicinal use. Native gold is a soft, dense, malleable, and ductile noble metal occurring in nature as nuggets, flakes, and grains in placer deposits and in quartz veins; it is highly resistant to chemical attack and does not tarnish in air or water. Medicinal-grade gold leaf is produced by hammering refined gold between sheets of parchment or specially prepared paper until it is reduced to a leaf only 0.1 micrometer or so in thickness, light enough to float on the slightest air current. Pieces of the leaf are applied to the surface of pills or decocted with mineral and shell sedatives. In traditional Chinese medicine gold leaf is acrid, bitter, and balanced with slight toxicity, settling and anchoring the spirit and pacifying the Liver for fright palpitations, convulsions, epilepsy, mania, and fright-wind in children, and is incorporated as a coating in classical sedative formulas such as An Gong Niu Huang Wan.
Active Constituents
Metallic gold (Au)
Native metallic element, face-centred cubicConcentration: Leaf for medicinal and edible use is commonly 22 to 24 carat, roughly 91.7 to 99.9% gold
Gold is the most chemically noble of the common metals: it resists gastric acid, does not oxidise, and has very low solubility, so systemic availability after ingestion is expected to be minimal. The European Food Safety Authority concluded on that basis that systemic effects would not be expected, while noting that no subchronic toxicity, chronic toxicity or genotoxicity data on elemental gold were available to test the assumption. Absence of an assay is not evidence of absence.
Silver and copper alloying metals
Alloying metalsConcentration: The balance of the alloy, up to roughly 8% by mass in 22-carat leaf; native gold also carries natural silver and copper
Gold leaf is rarely pure. Silver and copper are both far more reactive than gold and are the fraction most likely to dissolve, tarnish or provoke a local reaction. Silver in particular is itself a separately regulated food additive under its own safety review, so a gold-leaf product is not a single-element exposure.
Sub-100 nm gold particle fraction
Nanoparticulate metalConcentration: Gold flake as a food additive is specified at not less than 1 mm, yet 69.6% by number of the gold particles detected in a gold-leaf-containing liquor were below 100 nm in diameter
Beaten leaf is roughly 100 nm thick and fragments readily, so a drug specified as a millimetre-scale flake can deliver a majority of its particles, by number, in the nanoscale range. Nanoparticulate gold behaves differently from bulk gold, and EFSA has recommended that the specification be amended to state mean particle size, size distribution and the percentage of nanoscale particles precisely because that information is currently missing. This is the least resolved question about the drug.
Ionic gold released at tissue interfaces (Au(I) and Au(III))
Solubilised metal ionsConcentration: Trace, and local rather than systemic
EFSA noted that ionic gold can be released from elemental gold in contact with tissue and that high local concentrations can be reached at the point of contact. This is the mechanism behind gold contact allergy and oral lichenoid reactions, and it is why the correct statement about gold leaf is that it is poorly absorbed rather than that it is inert.
Imitation leaf metals (brass, copper-zinc alloy) in substituted material
Substitution contaminantConcentration: Absent in genuine leaf; the whole of the material in imitation leaf
Imitation gold leaf, a copper-zinc brass alloy, is visually indistinguishable from gold leaf and is widely sold for gilding at a small fraction of the price. Substituted material delivers copper and zinc, which unlike gold are readily absorbed and have real dose-dependent toxicity.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Cinnabar and realgar in gold-leaf-coated patent formulas such as An Gong Niu Huang Wan
Jin Bo's principal modern route into patients is as the coating of classical pills, most famously An Gong Niu Huang Wan, which contains both cinnabar and realgar. A practitioner reassured that gold leaf is inert may not register that the product it coats delivers mercury sulfide and arsenic sulfide. The gold is the safest ingredient in the preparation and the one most likely to be discussed.
Clinical note: When a gold-leaf-coated patent pill is dispensed, do the risk assessment on the core ingredients. Ask specifically whether the formula contains cinnabar or realgar, and limit it to short courses.
Gold-based antirheumatic drugs (auranofin, sodium aurothiomalate, aurothioglucose)
Therapeutic gold drugs are gold(I) thiolate complexes, chemically and pharmacokinetically unlike metallic leaf, and their nephrotoxicity, marrow suppression and mucocutaneous reactions cannot simply be attributed to gold leaf. The theoretical concern is that ionic gold released locally from metallic gold shares the antigenic species responsible for gold hypersensitivity, so a patient already sensitised by chrysotherapy has a plausible route to a reaction. No case series establishes this.
Clinical note: Not a reason to withhold a gold-coated pill, but worth asking about in a patient with a history of gold therapy or documented gold allergy.
Known gold contact allergy, oral lichen planus and lichenoid reactions
Gold is a well-recognised contact allergen, and allergic reactions and lichen planus have been attributed to edible gold. The mechanism is local release of ionic gold at the mucosal surface rather than systemic absorption, which is why a metal usually described as biologically inert can nonetheless cause an oral reaction.
Clinical note: In a patient with oral lichenoid lesions, ask about gold-coated pills and gold dental restorations before attributing the lesions to the herbs.
Imitation gold leaf (brass, Dutch metal) substituted for Jin Bo
The economic incentive to substitute is large and the visual difference is nil. Brass leaf delivers copper and zinc in absorbable form; chronic copper intake is hepatotoxic and chronic zinc intake induces copper deficiency and anaemia. The entire safety case for Jin Bo rests on the metal actually being gold.
Clinical note: Source from suppliers who certify the alloy. Imitation leaf is sold openly for gilding and there is no barrier to it reaching a pill coater.
Evidence Tier
Strong 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
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
0
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
Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of gold (E 175) as a food additive
Regulatory safety re-evaluation of elemental gold used as a food additive, the closest thing to a formal toxicological assessment of ingested metallic gold. The Panel found no subchronic toxicity, chronic toxicity or genotoxicity data on elemental gold, set no numerical acceptable daily intake, and concluded that systemic effects were nonetheless not expected given gold's very low solubility. It flagged that ionic gold can be released from elemental gold in contact with tissue, reaching high local concentrations, and recommended that the specification be amended to state mean particle size, particle size distribution and the percentage of nanoscale particles.
Determination and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles in Liquor Using Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation Hyphenated with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry
Analytical study, not a clinical trial. Using field-flow fractionation with ICP-MS on a commercial gold-leaf liquor, the authors found that 69.6% by number of the gold particles detected were below 100 nm, despite gold flake being an additive specified at not less than 1 mm. They note the health concern from larger flakes retained in the digestive tract and the separate, unresolved question of gold nanoparticle toxicity. The finding transfers directly to gold-leaf pill coatings, which are made from the same beaten leaf.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Gang Mu (Li Shizhen)
Ming dynasty, 1596Wen Bing Tiao Bian (Wu Jutong)
Qing dynasty, 1798References
- Zhao H, Ning Y. China's ancient gold drugs . Gold Bulletin (2001) [DOI]
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS). Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of gold (E 175) as a food additive . EFSA Journal (2016) [DOI]
- Li B, Chua SL, Yu D, Chan SH, Li A. Determination and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles in Liquor Using Asymmetric Flow Field-Flow Fractionation Hyphenated with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry . Molecules (2024) [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.
📝 Notes
Public notes from the community and your own private notes on Jin Bo.
No notes yet.