Jue Ming Zi
StarSenna obtusifolia (L.) H.S. Irwin & Barneby
Traditionally used for
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Eye health
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
Cautions & contraindications
- Heart conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and Brightens the Eyes; Clears Liver Fire; Calms the Liver and Subdues Yang; Moistens the Intestines and Unblocks the Bowels
Traditional Chinese Uses
Jue Ming Zi (cassia seed) has been valued in Chinese herbal medicine for centuries as a primary herb for eye conditions, particularly those caused by Liver Fire or Wind-Heat patterns presenting as redness, soreness, excessive tearing, or sensitivity to light. It also gently descends Liver Yang to relieve headaches and dizziness, and its mild laxative quality makes it useful for constipation due to intestinal dryness, especially in the elderly or debilitated.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Senna obtusifolia (L.) H.S.Irwin and Barneby, formerly placed in Cassia, is an annual or short-lived perennial herb in the family Fabaceae, typically reaching 0.5 to 2 meters in height. Stems are erect, branching, slightly woody at the base and smooth or finely hairy. The leaves are pinnately compound, alternate, with two or three pairs of obovate leaflets 2 to 5 cm long, the terminal pair largest; a small elongate gland is usually present between the lowest leaflet pair. Flowers are yellow, about 1 to 1.5 cm across, with five free petals, borne singly or in pairs in the leaf axils. The fruit is a slender, curved, four-angled legume 10 to 20 cm long containing numerous lustrous, rhombohedral seeds that are olive-brown to grey-green and lie obliquely in the pod. Native to the Americas, the plant has naturalized widely in Asia, where the ripe seeds are harvested in autumn as Jue Ming Zi.
Active Constituents
Chrysophanol
Anthraquinone aglycone (emodin-type)Concentration: the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China sets a minimum of 0.20% in the dried seed and uses it as one of the two indicator compounds for the drug
One of the two pharmacopoeial marker anthraquinones. As an emodin-type anthraquinone it belongs to the stimulant-laxative class, acting on colonic motility and water and electrolyte handling after the glycosidic forms are hydrolysed by gut flora. It is the marker most used to judge whether a batch has real laxative potential.
Aurantio-obtusin
Anthraquinone (obtusin-type)Concentration: the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China sets a minimum of 0.080% in the dried seed and uses it as the second indicator compound
The species-characteristic anthraquinone of Cassiae Semen and the second pharmacopoeial marker. It is also the constituent with the clearest experimental toxicity signal: in rats dosed for 28 days there was no significant liver injury at 4 mg/kg but obvious injury at 40 and 200 mg/kg, with hepatic necroinflammation attributed to activation of NLRP3 inflammasome signalling. A high marker content is therefore not straightforwardly a mark of quality.
Obtusifolin
Anthraquinone (obtusin-type)A characteristic anthraquinone of Senna obtusifolia, present in the seed both free and as gluco-obtusifolin. Along with obtusin, chryso-obtusin and aurantio-obtusin it makes up the obtusin-type series that chemically distinguishes this drug from rhubarb and senna leaf.
Emodin
Anthraquinone aglyconeA stimulant-laxative anthraquinone shared with rhubarb, senna leaf and Polygonum species. Its presence is part of why the anthranoid class cautions (potassium loss, dependence on chronic use) apply to this seed and not only to the obvious purgatives.
Physcion
Anthraquinone aglyconeA methyl ether anthraquinone of the seed, routinely quantified alongside chrysophanol and emodin in quality-control assays of the drug.
Aloe-emodin
Anthraquinone aglyconeAnother emodin-type anthraquinone of the seed. It is among the seven anthraquinone aglycones tracked in comparative pharmacokinetic work on raw versus processed (stir-fried) Cassiae Semen.
Rhein
Anthraquinone aglyconeThe most strongly cathartic of the common anthraquinone aglycones, present in this seed in smaller amounts than in rhubarb. It is quantified in the standard HPLC panel for the drug.
Obtusin, chryso-obtusin and alaternin
AnthraquinonesFurther members of the anthraquinone series of the seed. They are reported constituents contributing to the drug's overall anthranoid load rather than compounds with separately established clinical actions.
Questin
Anthraquinone aglyconeA minor anthraquinone of Cassiae Semen, reported in phytochemical surveys of the seed.
Gluco-aurantio-obtusin and gluco-obtusifolin
Anthraquinone glycosidesThe glycosidic forms in which much of the seed's anthraquinone content is actually stored. They are poorly absorbed intact and are hydrolysed by colonic bacteria to the free aglycones, which is why the laxative effect of the drug is delayed by several hours and why it varies with an individual's gut flora and with recent antibiotic use.
Cassiaside and rubrofusarin gentiobioside
Naphthopyrone glycosidesThe naphthopyrone glycosides are the second major chemical class of the seed after the anthraquinones. They are not laxative and are associated with the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities reported for the drug, which is part of why raw and processed preparations of this seed behave differently from one another.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Digoxin and other cardiac glycosides
Cassiae Semen is an anthranoid-containing drug. Its anthraquinone glycosides are hydrolysed by colonic flora to free aglycones (chrysophanol, emodin, aloe-emodin, rhein and the obtusin series) which stimulate colonic motility and secretion. The class consequence of repeated or high-dose anthranoid purgation is faecal potassium loss and hypokalaemia. Digoxin binds the sodium-potassium ATPase in competition with potassium, so a fall in serum potassium increases digoxin binding and toxicity at an unchanged serum digoxin level. This is a class interaction established for anthranoid laxatives generally, and Jue Ming Zi carries it despite being prescribed as an eye-brightening and Liver-clearing herb rather than as a purgative.
Clinical note: Avoid prolonged or high-dose use in any patient on digoxin. If the herb is needed, keep courses short, check serum potassium, and treat new nausea, visual disturbance or bradyarrhythmia as possible digoxin toxicity rather than as a heat pattern.
Potassium-depleting diuretics (furosemide, thiazides), corticosteroids, and liquorice-containing formulas (Gan Cao)
Loop and thiazide diuretics cause renal potassium loss, corticosteroids promote it through mineralocorticoid activity, and glycyrrhizin from Gan Cao inhibits 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 and produces a pseudoaldosteronism with potassium wasting. Anthranoid purgation adds faecal potassium loss on top of any of these. The Gan Cao case deserves particular attention in practice, because liquorice is present in a very large proportion of Chinese formulas and the combination is therefore easy to create without noticing.
Clinical note: Check potassium before and during extended courses in patients on diuretics or steroids. In formula design, treat a Gan Cao plus Jue Ming Zi combination given for weeks as an active hypokalaemia risk, not a neutral pairing.
QT-prolonging drugs and antiarrhythmics (sotalol, amiodarone, macrolides, and similar)
The interaction is indirect and runs through electrolytes rather than through any pharmacokinetic effect. Hypokalaemia produced by anthranoid purgation prolongs cardiac repolarisation in its own right and is one of the standard predisposing factors for torsades de pointes in patients taking QT-prolonging drugs. The risk therefore scales with the duration and dose of the herb, not with a single administration.
Clinical note: Keep courses short in patients on QT-prolonging medication and correct potassium before continuing. A patient reporting palpitations or syncope during a long course should stop the herb and have an ECG and electrolytes.
Other stimulant laxatives and anthranoid herbs (Fan Xie Ye or senna leaf, Da Huang or rhubarb, aloe, bisacodyl, sodium picosulfate)
Jue Ming Zi is frequently taken as a daily tea or slimming preparation and is often not recognised by the patient as a laxative at all, so it is easily stacked on top of a declared laxative. Chronic stimulant-laxative use is associated with tolerance and dependence, with loss of spontaneous bowel function on withdrawal, with pigmentation of the colonic mucosa (melanosis coli), and with cumulative fluid and electrolyte loss. Because the drug is also a food item in China, Korea and Japan, the exposure can be long and unremarked.
Clinical note: Ask explicitly about Cassia seed tea, slimming teas and eye teas when taking a laxative history. Cap continuous use at short courses, and taper rather than stop abruptly in a patient who has been taking it daily for months.
Orally administered drugs generally, particularly narrow therapeutic index and modified-release formulations (levothyroxine, oral contraceptives, antiepileptics)
Accelerated colonic transit reduces the time available for dissolution and absorption of co-administered oral drugs. The effect is generic to stimulant laxatives, is largest for slow-release and enteric-coated preparations, and is clinically relevant where a small loss of exposure matters, as with levothyroxine, hormonal contraceptives and antiepileptics.
Clinical note: Separate administration from critical oral medication by at least two hours, and review contraceptive cover or thyroid function if a patient starts a prolonged course.
Hepatotoxic drugs (paracetamol at high dose, methotrexate, isoniazid, and similar)
This is not the class caution but a species-specific one. Aurantio-obtusin, the pharmacopoeial marker of Cassiae Semen, produced overt liver injury in rats at 40 and 200 mg/kg over 28 days while 4 mg/kg did not, with hepatic necroinflammation mediated through NLRP3 inflammasome activation and disturbance of purine, taurine, bile acid, pyrimidine and tryptophan metabolism. Separately, the anthraquinone fraction of an aqueous Cassiae Semen extract caused liver injury in rats through lipid metabolism disorder. The evidence is animal and is at doses well above ordinary human dietary intake, but it is consistent across independent groups, and it argues against long unsupervised courses in anyone with existing liver disease or on hepatotoxic drugs. As a related toxicological signal, the seed also causes fatal toxic myopathy with acute hepatic necrosis in cattle grazing the plant, with lethality reported at 100% in affected animals.
Clinical note: Keep to conventional doses and short courses in patients with liver disease or on hepatotoxic medication. Investigate unexplained transaminase rises in a patient taking a daily Cassia seed tea before assuming the drug is the cause.
Senna tora (Cassia tora), the co-official source of Jue Ming Zi
The Chinese Pharmacopoeia accepts the seed of either Senna obtusifolia (Cassia obtusifolia) or Senna tora (Cassia tora) as Jue Ming Zi, so two different species circulate legitimately under one name. Their anthraquinone and naphthopyrone profiles are similar but not identical, which is one reason batch-to-batch potency of this drug varies. This is a quality-control issue rather than a toxic adulteration, but it means that literature specifying only Cassia tora should not automatically be read as evidence about Senna obtusifolia and the reverse.
Clinical note: Where the research basis for a use is species-specific, specify Senna obtusifolia on the order rather than accepting either co-official source.
Raw versus stir-fried (chao) Jue Ming Zi
The monograph above describes the raw seed. Comparative pharmacokinetics in rats given crude versus processed (stir-fried) Semen Cassiae extracts found the plasma profiles of the seven anthraquinone aglycones to differ between the two, which is the pharmacological basis of the traditional distinction between raw Jue Ming Zi, used more for clearing Liver fire and moving the bowels, and the stir-fried seed, used where a gentler effect on the stool is wanted. Substituting one for the other changes the anthranoid exposure and therefore the size of every laxative-mediated interaction listed above.
Clinical note: State raw or stir-fried on the prescription. If a patient reports that a long-standing prescription has suddenly become purgative, check whether the pharmacy switched from the processed to the raw seed.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 9–15 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】9～15g。 【性味与归经】甘、苦、咸，微寒。归肝、大肠经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Dui Yao — Herb Pairs
The classical two-herb combinations this herb appears in, each with an action neither herb has alone.
One clears liver heat from the plant side, the other anchors ascendant liver yang as a heavy shell; combined they clear and settle the liver and brighten the eyes.
For liver heat or liver yang rising with dizziness, headache, red painful eyes and blurred vision. Shi Jue Ming is decocted first.
Named pairing — Lü Jingshan, Shi Jinmo Dui Yao
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
3 verified · 2 unverified
Show 5 studies
- Aurantio-obtusin induces hepatotoxicity through activation of NLRP3 inflammasome signaling
- Metabolomics of Aurantio-Obtusin-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Rats for Discovery of Potential Biomarkers
- Anthraquinones in the aqueous extract of Cassiae semen cause liver injury in rats through lipid metabolism disorder
- Simultaneous Determination of Seven Anthraquinone Aglycones of Crude and Processed Semen Cassiae Extracts in Rat Plasma by UPLC–MS/MS and Its Application to a Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study
- Toxic myopathy and acute hepatic necrosis in cattle caused by ingestion of Senna obtusifolia (sicklepod; coffee senna) in Brazil
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
Aurantio-obtusin induces hepatotoxicity through activation of NLRP3 inflammasome signaling
Aurantio-obtusin, the pharmacopoeial marker anthraquinone of Cassiae Semen, produced hepatic necroinflammation in rodents through activation of NLRP3 inflammasome signalling. This gives a defined mechanism for the liver injury signal attached to the drug's own quality-control marker, and is the reason prolonged high-dose use is cautioned rather than merely noted.
Metabolomics of Aurantio-Obtusin-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Rats for Discovery of Potential Biomarkers
Male Sprague-Dawley rats received aurantio-obtusin at 4, 40 or 200 mg/kg for 28 days. The low-dose group showed no significant liver injury while the medium- and high-dose groups showed obvious injury, with purine, taurine and hypotaurine, primary bile acid, pyrimidine and tryptophan metabolism implicated. The dose separation is the useful clinical detail: the toxicity is a high-exposure phenomenon rather than one expected at ordinary dietary intake.
Anthraquinones in the aqueous extract of Cassiae semen cause liver injury in rats through lipid metabolism disorder
The anthraquinone fraction of an aqueous Cassiae Semen extract, rather than a single purified compound, caused liver injury in rats, with disordered lipid metabolism as the proposed route. This matters because it tests the extract a patient would actually drink rather than an isolate, and it corroborates the aurantio-obtusin findings from an independent direction.
Simultaneous Determination of Seven Anthraquinone Aglycones of Crude and Processed Semen Cassiae Extracts in Rat Plasma by UPLC–MS/MS and Its Application to a Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study
Seven anthraquinone aglycones were measured in rat plasma after dosing with crude and with processed (stir-fried) Semen Cassiae extracts. The pharmacokinetic profiles differed between the two preparations, giving a measurable basis for the traditional distinction between raw and stir-fried Jue Ming Zi and showing that the choice of preparation changes systemic anthraquinone exposure.
Toxic myopathy and acute hepatic necrosis in cattle caused by ingestion of Senna obtusifolia (sicklepod; coffee senna) in Brazil
Natural outbreaks in cattle grazing Senna obtusifolia produced diarrhoea, muscular weakness and recumbency, with degeneration and necrosis of skeletal and occasionally cardiac muscle, acute hepatic necrosis and raised creatine kinase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyltransferase and alkaline phosphatase. Morbidity ranged from 2% to 27.9% and lethality was 100%. This is heavy, sustained ingestion of the whole plant by ruminants rather than medicinal seed use in humans, but it establishes that the species has genuine myotoxic and hepatotoxic potential at high exposure.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Divine Farmer's Materia Medica)
Han dynasty, compiled by the 2nd century CEReferences
- Chen Y, Chen X, Yang X, Gao P, Yue C, Wang L, Wu T, Jiang T, Wu H, Tang L, Wang Z. Cassiae Semen: A comprehensive review of botany, traditional use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicity, and quality control . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2023) [DOI]
- Dong X, Fu J, Yin X, Yang C, Zhang X, Wang W, Du X, Wang Q, Ni J. Cassiae semen: A review of its phytochemistry and pharmacology . Molecular Medicine Reports (2017) [DOI]
- Ali MY, Park S, Chang M. Phytochemistry, Ethnopharmacological Uses, Biological Activities, and Therapeutic Applications of Cassia obtusifolia L.: A Comprehensive Review . Molecules (2021) [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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