Easter lily
StarLilium lancifolium
Synonyms: Lilium lancifolium var. splendens, Lilium lancifolium var. fortunei, Lilium leopoldii, Lilium lishmannii, Lilium tigrinum, Lilium lancifolium var. densum, Lilium lancifolium var. flaviflorum, Lilium tigrinum var. fortunei, Lilium tigrinum var. splendens, Lilium lancifolium melpomene, Lilium lancifolium album, Lilium tigrinum var. plenescens, Lilium tigrinum var. erectum
Safety at a glance
No rule in our tables for this herb: pregnancy, breastfeeding, incompatible pairs (十八反 / 十九畏), herb–drug, dose ceiling. This is not a safety clearance.
Not graded — No toxicity grade is recorded. Most herbs in the catalogue carry none.
Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Sleep
- Mood & calm
Cautions & contraindications
- Diabetes
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
In Traditional Chinese Medicine the dried fleshy bulb scales of Lilium lancifolium are one of the botanical sources of the drug "Bai He" (Lilii Bulbus), a sweet, slightly cold, moistening remedy used to nourish yin and moisten the lungs for dry cough and sore throat, and to clear heat and calm the spirit in cases of restlessness, irritability and insomnia (Chinese Pharmacopoeia; Bensky, Materia Medica). The starchy bulb is also a traditional East Asian food, cooked as a vegetable and used in soups and desserts (PFAF).
Gallery
Botanical Description
Lilium lancifolium (tiger lily; syn. L. tigrinum) is a bulbous perennial herb of the lily family, growing 1-2 m tall from a large fleshy white scaly bulb. The erect, dark, often cottony stems bear many alternate, narrowly lance-shaped sessile leaves, and characteristically produce small dark purplish-black bulbils in the upper leaf axils, an important means of vegetative reproduction. In summer it bears several large, nodding, strongly recurved (turk's-cap) flowers with bright orange to orange-red tepals heavily spotted with dark purple-black, and long protruding stamens tipped with conspicuous dark red anthers. The fruit is an oblong capsule, though the plant (a frequent triploid) often sets little seed and spreads mainly by bulbils. Native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East), it is widely cultivated as an ornamental and for its edible bulb.
Active Constituents
Regaloside A
Phenylpropanoid glycerol glycosideConcentration: 2.797 mg/g of dried bulb under optimised extraction; 341.43 micrograms/g in the standardised HY-LL bulb extract used in the 2024 joint-pain trial. Total regalosides in freeze-dried bulb range 1.12-29.76 mg/g across samples.
The dominant marker compound of the bulb and the constituent most used to standardise commercial extracts. It carries a large share of the radical-scavenging capacity of aqueous bulb extracts and, with regaloside B, was one of only two metabolites in a 2026 screen that retained hypoglycaemic activity when tested alone.
Regaloside B
Phenylpropanoid glycerol glycosideConcentration: One of eight regalosides quantified as high-abundance metabolites of the bulb; not separately standardised in commercial extracts
Inhibited alpha-glucosidase with an IC50 of 2.99 mg/mL, close to the acarbose control at 2.78 mg/mL in the same assay, and lowered fasting glucose in high-fat-diet plus streptozotocin mice from 27.87 to 14.11 mmol/L over 28 days. This is animal and enzyme-assay evidence only; no human glycaemic data exist for the isolated compound.
Caffeic acid
Hydroxycinnamic acidConcentration: One of five phenolic acids quantified in the HY-LL bulb extract, alongside p-coumaric, ferulic and syringic acids and hesperetin
Abundant in bulb extracts but specifically shown not to account for their glucose-lowering effect: it was inactive in the same alpha-glucosidase and hyperglycaemic-mouse models in which the regalosides were active. A useful caution against attributing the bulb's activity to its most familiar phenolic.
Spirostanol and furostanol steroidal saponins
Steroidal saponinConcentration: Around four dioscin-type saponins among the high-abundance bulb metabolites; several new congeners described from L. lancifolium bulbs in 2025
The dioscin-type glycosides are the antioxidant fraction of the bulb and are the class most often linked in reviews to its reported sedative and antidepressant actions. Steroidal saponins in this genus are also the structural basis for weak sodium-potassium ATPase inhibition, demonstrated in the sister pharmacopoeial species Lilium pumilum rather than in L. lancifolium itself.
Non-starch bulb polysaccharide
PolysaccharideConcentration: Major bulk constituent of the fresh bulb; not standardised in medicinal preparations
Water-soluble glucomannan-type polysaccharides are the fraction credited with the immune-modulating and neuroprotective effects reported for lily bulb in cell and rodent work. Note that much of this literature is published on unspecified commercial lily bulb rather than on botanically authenticated L. lancifolium.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Acarbose and other alpha-glucosidase inhibitors
Regaloside B, a major bulb constituent, inhibits alpha-glucosidase with an IC50 of 2.99 mg/mL against an acarbose control of 2.78 mg/mL in the same assay, and suppressed postprandial glucose excursion in hyperglycaemic mice with efficacy the authors described as matching acarbose. The mechanism is therefore identical to the drug's, so co-administration would be expected to be additive. No human pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic study has tested this.
Clinical note: No dose change is warranted on this evidence alone. If a patient on acarbose or miglitol begins taking lily bulb in medicinal rather than culinary quantity, ask them to monitor postprandial glucose for the first two weeks and watch for the flatulence and bloating that signal excess alpha-glucosidase blockade.
Insulin and sulfonylureas
Whole bulb extract and its regalosides lowered fasting glucose substantially in high-fat-diet plus streptozotocin mice over 28 days. The effect is real in that model but has never been reproduced in humans, and the doses used were far above culinary intake. The concern is straightforward additivity in a patient whose insulin or sulfonylurea dose is already titrated.
Clinical note: Treat as a monitoring issue, not a contraindication. Diabetic patients starting a medicinal dose of Bai He should check capillary glucose more often for two to three weeks; adjust the conventional agent only if readings actually fall.
Lilium davidii var. unicolor (Lanzhou sweet lily) sold as medicinal lily bulb
Lanzhou sweet lily is a culinary cultivar that is not a pharmacopoeial source of Lilii Bulbus, and it reaches the same retail channels as medicinal lily bulb. It is distinguished organoleptically by the absence of the slight bitterness that characterises the three official species, and its phenylpropanoid profile differs from that of L. lancifolium. Substitution does not introduce a toxic species but does deliver a materially different constituent profile.
Clinical note: When a prescription depends on Bai He, source bulb that is botanically authenticated to one of the three pharmacopoeial species and reject sweet, non-bitter material. Consider substitution first if a previously effective prescription stops working after a change of supplier.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Easter lily. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
1 RCT · 4 studies on recordRecorded 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
1
0 verified · 1 unverified
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
3
1 verified · 2 unverified
Show 3 studies
- The hypoglycemic metabolites and potential mechanisms of Lilium lancifolium (Juandan lily)
- The HPLC–PDA Method for Simultaneous Determination of Regalosides from Bulbs of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. and Their Antioxidant Effects
- Steroidal saponins from the bulbs of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. and their antioxidant effects
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
The Effects of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. on the Alleviation of Joint Pain: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
The only human trial of this species. One hundred adults aged 50 to 80 with joint pain of at least three months and Kellgren-Lawrence grade 1-2 osteoarthritis took 1 g/day of a standardised L. lancifolium bulb extract (HY-LL, four 400 mg tablets containing 250 mg extract each, twice daily) or placebo for 12 weeks; 39 and 38 were analysed. K-WOMAC total fell by 13.67 versus 5.97 points (p = 0.043), with the pain (p = 0.023) and function (p = 0.047) subscales driving the difference, and WHOQOL-BREF general health improved (p = 0.024). Inflammatory markers including IL-6, TNF-alpha, PGE-2, COX-2, hs-CRP and ESR did not differ between groups overall. No adverse events were reported and blood chemistry stayed within normal limits. The result is modest, in mild radiographic disease, and unreplicated; note also that it supports an indication (joint pain) quite unlike the lung-moistening and mind-calming uses the herb carries in traditional practice.
The hypoglycemic metabolites and potential mechanisms of Lilium lancifolium (Juandan lily)
Combined UPLC-Q-TOF-MS metabolite profiling, alpha-glucosidase assays, molecular docking and a high-fat-diet plus streptozotocin mouse model of dried L. lancifolium bulb. Regalosides A and B were identified as the active hypoglycaemic metabolites; caffeic acid, despite being a major constituent, was inactive. Regaloside B gave an alpha-glucosidase IC50 of 2.99 mg/mL against acarbose at 2.78 mg/mL and reduced blood glucose from 27.87 to 14.11 mmol/L over 28 days. Preclinical only.
The HPLC–PDA Method for Simultaneous Determination of Regalosides from Bulbs of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. and Their Antioxidant Effects
An analytical and antioxidant study rather than a therapeutic one. A validated HPLC-PDA method quantified the regaloside series in L. lancifolium bulbs, with total regaloside content spanning 1.12 to 29.76 mg per freeze-dried gram across samples, and the isolated regalosides showed concentration-dependent radical scavenging. The wide content range is the practically useful finding: it means batch-to-batch potency of this drug varies by more than an order of magnitude.
Steroidal saponins from the bulbs of Lilium lancifolium Thunb. and their antioxidant effects
Isolation and structural characterisation of steroidal saponins from L. lancifolium bulbs, including previously undescribed congeners, with antioxidant testing of the isolates. Chemistry paper; no pharmacological model beyond cell-free antioxidant assays, and no bearing on dosing.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica)
Han dynasty, compiled by the 2nd century CEJin Gui Yao Lue (Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet), Zhang Zhongjing
Eastern Han dynasty, c. 220 CEBen Cao Yan Yi (Dilations upon Materia Medica), Kou Zongshi, and later Ming and Qing materia medica
Northern Song dynasty, 1116 CE, and subsequent Ming and Qing worksReferences
- Zhang W, Wang JL, Zhang ZJ, Peng HS, Zhan ZL, Yang HJ. [Herbal textual research on triditional Chinese medicine "Baihe"( Lilii Bulbus)]. . Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi (China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica) 44(22) (2019) [DOI]
- Zhou J, An R, Huang X. Genus Lilium: A review on traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2021) [DOI]
- Wang Y, Chen H, Feng P, Wang D, Du X. Traditional uses, nutritional properties, phytochemical metabolites, pharmacological properties, and potential applications of Lilium spp.: a systematic review . Frontiers in Pharmacology (2025) [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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