Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
- Menstrual & women's health
- Skin
- Liver & jaundice
☯ TCM Properties
Cools the Blood, stops bleeding, dispels Heat, removes Dampness, relieves toxicity and resolves swelling
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ma Lan (Herba Kalimeris indica, syn. Aster indicus) is a cool, pungent heat-clearing herb entering the Liver, Stomach, Large Intestine and Lung channels. Its principal action is to cool the Blood and stop bleeding, making it a folk remedy for reckless heat in the Blood presenting as nosebleed, coughing or vomiting of blood, bloody urine, hemorrhoidal bleeding, and abnormal uterine bleeding.
It also clears Heat and resolves toxicity while draining Damp-Heat, and is applied to damp-heat jaundice, sore throat, dysenteric diarrhea, hot painful urinary dribbling, and turbid stranguria. Externally the pounded fresh herb is dressed onto sores, boils, erysipelas, and traumatic wounds to reduce swelling. Typical dosage is 10-30 g dried (30-60 g fresh, or expressed juice); the tender shoots are also eaten as a cooling spring vegetable in southern China.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Kalimeris indica (syn. Aster indicus) is a perennial herb of the Asteraceae, native to East and South Asia. It grows 30–70 cm tall from a short, creeping rhizome, with erect, slender, sparingly branched stems. The alternate leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, coarsely toothed, the lower ones often withered by flowering time. From late spring through autumn the plant bears small daisy-like capitula, 1.5–2.5 cm across, with pale lilac to white ray florets and yellow disc florets, arranged in loose corymbs. It is common in moist meadows, ditch margins, fallow paddies, and roadsides across much of China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. The aerial parts (and sometimes the whole plant including roots) are gathered when in flower for medicinal use.
Active Constituents
Chlorogenic acid
Caffeoylquinic acid (hydroxycinnamate ester)One of the principal phenolic acids detected by HPLC-MS in the aqueous whole-herb extract. It is a general antioxidant and Nrf2 activator and is one of the components used to standardise Kalimeris preparations.
3,5-Dicaffeoylquinic acid
Dicaffeoylquinic acid (hydroxycinnamate ester)Together with 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid this was the most anticomplementary of the five marker compounds quantified in the active fraction, showing significantly greater activity than the other three. It is used as a quality-control marker for the drug.
4,5-Dicaffeoylquinic acid
Dicaffeoylquinic acid (hydroxycinnamate ester)Shares the strong anticomplement activity of its 3,5-isomer in the ethyl acetate fraction, and is used alongside it to fingerprint material from different geographic origins.
Rutin
Flavonol glycosideA flavonoid identified in the aqueous herb extract; part of the total flavone fraction that reduced hepatic malondialdehyde and raised superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in BCG/LPS-injured mouse liver.
Apigenin-7-O-glucoside
Flavone glycosideIdentified by HPLC-MS in the water extract used in the alcohol-liver-injury model. Apigenin glycosides contribute to the herb's inhibition of nitric-oxide production in LPS-stimulated macrophages.
Emodin
AnthraquinoneIsolated from the whole herb together with chrysophanol and physcion. Anthraquinones are the reason a Kalimeris preparation can have a mild laxative effect that is not predicted from its TCM category.
Chrysophanol
AnthraquinoneIsolated from Kalimeris indica and reported to protect primary cultured hepatocytes against carbon tetrachloride toxicity, which is consistent with the herb's documented hepatoprotective activity.
Physcion
AnthraquinoneA methylated anthraquinone reported from the whole herb; first isolation from the genus was in this species.
Kalimeristone A
Nor-sesquiterpeneA structurally novel nor-sesquiterpene described from the herb. It was inactive against four cancer cell lines when tested in vitro, so it is a chemotaxonomic rather than a therapeutic marker.
Kalimerislactone B
Nor-triterpenoid lactoneA novel nor-triterpenoid lactone from the herb, reported alongside kalimeristone A. Like that compound it showed no cytotoxicity in the cell lines tested.
beta-Sitosterol
PhytosterolA common phytosterol isolated from the whole herb; part of the lipophilic fraction rather than the water-soluble fraction used in most of the animal work.
Fructan polysaccharide
Polysaccharide (fructan)A structurally characterised fructan from Kalimeris indica accelerated wound healing in an experimental model, and is the best-defined component of the polysaccharide fraction of the herb.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 4 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
4
1 verified · 3 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Effects of Kalimeris indica on alcohol-induced liver injury through storing Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and gut microbiota
- Effects of Kalimeris indica (L.) Sch Bip on colitis-associated colorectal cancer
- The hepatoprotective activities of Kalimeris indica ethanol extract against liver injury in vivo
- The chemical profile of active fraction of Kalimeris indica and its quantitative analysis
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
Effects of Kalimeris indica on alcohol-induced liver injury through storing Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and gut microbiota
A water extract of dried Kalimeris indica herb (50 and 200 mg/kg by gavage for 15 days) was tested in C57BL/6 mice given 56% ethanol at 5 g/kg for 6 days. The extract normalised serum ALT and AST, reduced hepatic lipid droplets, raised GSH, SOD and catalase and lowered MDA, with an effect comparable to silymarin. The authors attribute this to Nrf2/HO-1 activation plus restoration of gut microbiota diversity, and reported reduced ROS in HepG2 cells at 150-300 micrograms/mL.
Effects of Kalimeris indica (L.) Sch Bip on colitis-associated colorectal cancer
Azoxymethane/dextran-sulfate-sodium colitis-associated colorectal cancer was induced in C57BL/6 mice over ten weeks and a water extract of the herb given orally at 15 and 30 mg/kg daily for five weeks. Atypical hyperplasia in colon tissue was significantly reduced and survival rose to 84.6% (30 mg/kg) and 76.9% (15 mg/kg) versus 61.5% in untreated animals, with lower IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-11 and IL-7. The proposed mechanism is restoration of miR-31-5p and its target LATS2, limiting YAP accumulation.
The hepatoprotective activities of Kalimeris indica ethanol extract against liver injury in vivo
Total phenolics, total triterpenes and total flavones prepared from an ethanol extract of the herb were each tested against BCG/LPS-induced liver injury in mice. All three fractions reduced hepatic malondialdehyde and total nitric oxide synthase and raised superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase; the phenolic and triterpene fractions also lowered inducible nitric oxide synthase, all three lowered serum total bilirubin, and only the flavone fraction lowered serum ALT.
The chemical profile of active fraction of Kalimeris indica and its quantitative analysis
Fifty-nine compounds, mainly phenolics and flavonoids, were identified in Kalimeris indica extract by UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS, and the anticomplement and antitussive activity of different polar fractions compared. 3,5-Dicaffeoylquinic acid and 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid were significantly more anticomplementary than the other three markers quantified. The paper records the Miao ethnic use of the fresh plant as a vegetable for colds, diarrhoea and gastric ulcer.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Shi Yi
Tang dynasty (741 CE)References
- Lianwu Xie, Qinlu Lin, Keke Guo, Chaoying Tong, Shuyun Shi, Fangying Shi. HPLC‒DAD‒QTOF-MS/MS based comprehensive metabolomic profiling of phenolic compounds in Kalimeris indica anti-inflammatory fractions . Industrial Crops and Products (2019) [DOI]
- Guo-Kai Wang, Yang Yu, Zheng Wang, Bai-Xiang Cai, Zhong-yu Zhou, Gang Wang, Jin-Song Liu. Two new terpenoids from Kalimeris indica . Natural Product Research (2017) [DOI]
- Chwan-Fwu Lin, Chien-Chang Shen, Chien-Chih Chen, Shuenn-Jyi Sheu, Yu-Ling Huang. Phenolic derivatives from Aster indicus . Phytochemistry (2007) [DOI]
- Lili Zhu, Xiaomeng Hou, Gan Lingling, Kaohua Liu, Yunpeng Sun, Guokai Wang. Structural characterization of a fructan from Kalimeris indica and its efficacy in accelerating wound healing . Carbohydrate Polymers (2026) [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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