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Leibnitzia anandria

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Leibnitzia anandria

Not yet clinically reviewed

Family: Asteraceae Genus: Leibnitzia Species: anandria

Synonyms: Gerbera cavaleriei, Gerbera integripetala, Anandria bellidiastrum var. autumnalis, Anandria bellidiastrum, Anandria bellidiastrum var. vernalis, Anandria anandria, Anandria discoidea, Anandria dimorpha var. vernalis, Gerbera bellidiastrum, Anandria dimorpha var. autumnalis, Anandria dimorpha, Chaptalia anandria, Anandria laevipes, Tussilago bellidiastrum, Perdicium anandria, Tussilago lyrata, Perdicium lyratum, Gerbera anandria, Leibnitzia cryptogama, Gerbera pterodonta, Tussilago anandria

Japanese gerbera大丁草

Traditionally used for

  • Nose & throat
  • Cough & breathing
  • Bowel health
  • Skin
Moderate evidence · 4 studies

Western Herbalism Properties

Actions:
anti-inflammatoryantimicrobial

Traditional Uses

In Chinese folk and minor traditional medicine the whole herb of Leibnitzia anandria, known as bi hua yi zhi jian hao (鼻花一支箭) or tu er san, is used as a decoction and topical wash for sore throat, coughs, dysentery, traumatic injury and skin sores; chemical investigation has shown coumarins and sesquiterpenes with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity (Zhu, 1998, Chinese Materia Medica; Lin et al., 2003 Phytochem).

Botanical Description

Leibnitzia anandria (L.) Turcz. (Asteraceae), sometimes treated as Gerbera anandria, is a small dimorphic perennial herb 5-30 cm tall, native to East Asia, with a wide range across Japan, the Korean peninsula, China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East and the Himalayas, where it grows in dry grasslands, sunny open slopes and pine-oak woodland margins. All leaves are basal, forming a flat rosette; they are obovate to lyrate-pinnatifid, 3-10 cm long, dark green above and white-woolly beneath, with shallowly lobed margins. The plant produces dimorphic capitula on white-woolly leafless scapes 5-25 cm tall: spring chasmogamous heads bear narrow pinkish-white ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets, while later cleistogamous summer heads remain closed and are entirely self-pollinating. Achenes are slender, beaked, and bear a pappus of stiff tawny barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal. The plant tolerates poor stony soils and is widespread but seldom abundant.

Native Region: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tuva, West Siberia

Active Constituents

Xanthotoxin (8-methoxypsoralen)

Linear furanocoumarin

Concentration: Isolated from the chloroform fraction of a 75 percent ethanol extract of the whole herb; not quantified

This is the constituent that matters most for safety. Xanthotoxin is the same molecule as the drug methoxsalen, used clinically as a photosensitiser in PUVA therapy, and it is also the standard mechanism-based inhibitor of CYP2A6. Its presence puts this herb in the furanocoumarin-bearing class regardless of how it is used traditionally, and no assay has been published saying how much a therapeutic decoction delivers.

8-Methoxysmyrindiol

Coumarin

Concentration: Minor constituent of the chloroform fraction; described as new to science in 2014

Cytotoxic against several human cancer cell lines, most potently against HepG2 hepatoma cells. Cell-line cytotoxicity in a liver line is worth noting alongside the traditional use of the herb for hepatitis-adjacent complaints, though the two have not been connected experimentally.

5-Methylcoumarin-monoterpenes (gerberdriasins A to F and related congeners)

Coumarin-monoterpene meroterpenoids

Concentration: The dominant specialised metabolite class of the stems; over thirty previously undescribed members reported from a single extract

C3-substituted 5-methyl-4-hydroxycoumarin-monoterpenes, a class largely confined to Gerbera and its relatives, so they serve as chemical markers for the herb. Several protected PC12 cells against scopolamine-induced injury by limiting apoptosis and reactive oxygen species and restoring Nrf2 and HO-1, some at nanomolar concentrations.

Gerberinside

5-Methylcoumarin glycoside

Concentration: Isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction

A glycosidic member of the same 5-methylcoumarin family, found in the ethyl acetate fraction that carried the strongest radical-scavenging activity of the extract. Related 5-methylcoumarin cellobiosides from this plant were identified as direct Rap1 binders in a formula study.

Apigenin 7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside and quercetin

Flavone and flavonol

Concentration: Isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction

The flavonoid contribution to the herb's antioxidant activity; the ethyl acetate fraction containing them showed the strongest DPPH radical scavenging of all fractions tested.

2-Hydroxy-6-methylbenzoic acid and 7-hydroxy-1(3H)-isobenzofuranone

Simple aromatic acid and phthalide

Concentration: Minor constituents of the chloroform fraction

Small aromatic compounds that sit on the biosynthetic route to the 5-methylcoumarins. They are of chemotaxonomic rather than therapeutic interest.

Beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol

Phytosterols

Concentration: Isolated as a mixture from the chloroform fraction

Common plant sterols with no activity specific to this herb.

⚠ Drug Interactions

Photosensitising drugs and ultraviolet or PUVA phototherapy (tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, thiazides, amiodarone, retinoids, St John's wort)

Major Evidence: Probable

Xanthotoxin, isolated from this herb in 2014, is 8-methoxypsoralen, the identical molecule to the prescription photosensitiser methoxsalen. Psoralens intercalate DNA and form cyclobutane adducts with pyrimidines when activated by long-wave ultraviolet light, which is precisely how PUVA therapy works and precisely how phytophotodermatitis happens. Taking a furanocoumarin-bearing herb alongside another photosensitising drug, or during phototherapy, is additive. The herb's xanthotoxin content has not been quantified, so the size of the exposure from a 9 to 30 g decoction is unknown, but absence of an assay is not evidence of a low dose.

Clinical note: Do not give during PUVA or narrowband UVB phototherapy. Advise sun protection while taking it, review the patient's drug list for other photosensitisers, and warn anyone handling the fresh plant that skin contact plus sunlight can raise blisters.

CYP2A6 substrates (nicotine and nicotine replacement, letrozole, tegafur, coumarin anticoagulant precursors) and CYP1A2 substrates

Moderate Evidence: Possible

8-Methoxypsoralen is the canonical mechanism-based inhibitor of CYP2A6 and is used experimentally for exactly that purpose, and it also inhibits CYP1A2 and CYP2B6. Because the herb contains it, a clinically meaningful inhibition is plausible, but no interaction study has been done on the herb and its xanthotoxin content is unmeasured, so this is inference from a confirmed constituent rather than a demonstrated herb-drug effect.

Clinical note: Take a careful medication history before prescribing, particularly for narrow-margin drugs cleared by CYP1A2 or CYP2A6. Smokers on nicotine replacement may notice stronger nicotine effects.

Gerbera piloselloides (Mao Da Ding Cao)

Moderate Evidence: Probable

This herb is Da Ding Cao; Gerbera piloselloides is Mao Da Ding Cao, the hairy Da Ding Cao, and both are used as folk drugs of the same type in overlapping regions. They share the rare 5-methylcoumarin-monoterpene chemistry, which is what makes them hard to tell apart chemically once dried, and separate 2022 papers report those compounds from each species. The furanocoumarin xanthotoxin has been reported from Leibnitzia anandria specifically, and the substitution therefore changes what a patient is actually exposed to.

Clinical note: Specify the binomial when ordering, not the Chinese name alone. If the material is hairier than expected, question the identification.

Evidence Tier

Moderate evidence · 4 studies

Recorded 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

4

1 verified · 3 unverified

Show 4 studies

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

Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Gerbera anandria

He F, Wang M, Gao M, Zhao M, Bai Y, Zhao C (2014) Molecules in vitro

Fractionation of a 75 percent ethanol whole-herb extract yielded xanthotoxin, 2-hydroxy-6-methylbenzoic acid, 7-hydroxy-1(3H)-isobenzofuranone, a sterol mixture and the new coumarin 8-methoxysmyrindiol from the chloroform fraction, and gerberinside, apigenin 7-O-glucoside and quercetin from the ethyl acetate fraction. The ethyl acetate fraction scavenged DPPH radicals most strongly and 8-methoxysmyrindiol was cytotoxic to several cancer cell lines, most potently to HepG2. This is the paper that establishes the furanocoumarin content, and it is chemistry and cell assays only.

DOI: 10.3390/molecules19044046 Link

Coumarin-monoterpenes from Gerbera anandria (Linn.) Sch.-Bip and their neuroprotective activity

Wu Zl, Huang Pl, Wang Q, Li Jy, Sun Zs, Li Hl, Zhang Wd (2022) Bioorganic Chemistry in vitro Verified: In vitro / animal

Thirty-two previously undescribed coumarin-monoterpenes were isolated from the petroleum ether extract of the stems and structurally assigned by NMR, ECD calculation, Mosher's method and X-ray. Several protected PC12 cells against scopolamine injury, the most active raising viability to 77 percent while reducing apoptosis and reactive oxygen species and restoring HO-1 and Nrf2. A cell line and a chemical insult; it is not evidence of a cognitive effect in a person.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2022.105826 Link

Gerberdriasins A-F, six undescribed coumarin derivatives from Gerbera anandria (Linn) Sch-Bip and their protective effects on scopolamine-induced injury in PC12 cells

Wu Zl, Sun Zs, Li Jy, Yang Yx, Zu Xp, Li Hl, Zhang Wd (2022) RSC Advances in vitro

Six further new coumarin derivatives from the same herb, protective against scopolamine-induced PC12 injury at 12.5 to 50 nanomolar, with one reducing apoptosis and malondialdehyde and raising superoxide dismutase. Same laboratory and same assay as the preceding paper, so treat the two together as one line of preclinical evidence rather than as independent replication.

DOI: 10.1039/d2ra03166c Link

Combination of Gentiana rhodantha and Gerbera anandria in the BL02 formula as therapeutics to non-small cell lung carcinoma acting via Rap1/cdc42 signaling: A transcriptomics/ bio-informatics biological validation approach

Tan HY, Ho VWT, Chan YT, Zhang C, Wang N, Xia W, Feng Y (2020) Pharmacological Research animal

The two-herb BL02 formula was given orally to mice bearing orthotopic intrathoracic A549 and HCC827 lung tumours, where it was safe and suppressed tumour growth; in vitro it was only weakly cytotoxic but strongly suppressed cell motility by depolymerising actin through Rap1 and cdc42. Docking and pull-down implicated 5-methylcoumarin-4-cellobioside from this herb, and mangiferin, as direct Rap1 binders. A two-herb combination in mice, so nothing here can be attributed to Leibnitzia anandria alone, and there is no human trial of this herb for any indication.

DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2019.104415 Link

Historical Texts

Ben Cao Gang Mu, by Li Shizhen

Ming dynasty, 1578
Modern Chinese materia medica dictionaries give Ben Cao Gang Mu as the source in which Da Ding Cao is first recorded. Treat that attribution with the usual caution: a Ming-era name cannot be tied to a modern binomial from the description alone, and the character ding here refers to the boils the drug was used for, a naming pattern shared by several unrelated drugs.

Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian (Dictionary of Chinese Materia Medica) line of transmission

Modern compendia, 20th century
Records the drug as the whole herb, with or without root, gathered in summer and autumn, nature bitter and warm and non-toxic, entering the Lung and Spleen channels, acting to dispel wind-damp and resolve toxin, for rheumatic numbness, cough and wheezing, and boils. Dose 9 to 30 g decocted, or applied externally.

Quan Guo Zhong Cao Yao Hui Bian (National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Drugs) line of transmission

Modern compilation, first published 1975
Gives a materially different profile for the same drug: nature bitter and cold, entering Lung and Liver, clearing heat and draining damp, resolving toxin and reducing swelling, stopping cough and stopping bleeding, for lung-heat cough, enteritis, dysentery, urinary tract infection and rheumatic joint pain, with external use for mastitis, boils, chronic leg ulcers, burns and traumatic bleeding. The disagreement is not cosmetic: one lineage calls the drug warm and wind-damp-dispelling, the other cold and heat-clearing. A practitioner should decide which lineage they are prescribing from and say so, and should treat the possibility that two different plants were historically conflated under this name as open.

References

  1. Ru B, Wang T, Liu Y, Zhao X, Lei M. The complete chloroplast genome sequence of leibnitzia anandria (linnaeus) turczaninow . Mitochondrial DNA Part B (2024) [DOI]
  2. Zhao Cx, Gao H, Yu M, Zhao Jp, He Bx, Wu Jp, Zhang Hx, Zhang T, Zou Zm. 1H-NMR-guided isolation of enantiomeric coumarin-monoterpenes with anti-inflammatory activity from Gerbera piloselloides . Phytochemistry (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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