Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Menstrual & women's health
- Skin
- Liver & jaundice
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, removes Dampness, controls bleeding and removes toxicity
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ma Lin Zi is the ripe seed of Iris lactea var. chinensis (Iridaceae), a sweet, neutral medicinal that clears Heat, drains Dampness, cools the Blood to stop bleeding, and resolves toxicity. Entering the Spleen and Lung channels, it is used for Damp-Heat patterns such as jaundice and damp-heat diarrhea and dysentery, and for Heat-type bleeding—nosebleed, vomiting of blood, and uterine flooding (metrorrhagia). Its toxin-resolving action lends it to throat swelling and pain, mouth sores, and hot sores and boils, and it is a traditional adjunct for goitre. The usual dose is 3-9 g decocted, or powdered into pills. Being cool and draining, it is generally mild but is best avoided in Cold-from-Deficiency and in dry-heat conditions without Dampness.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Iris lactea var. chinensis is a clump-forming rhizomatous perennial herb of the Iridaceae, native to grasslands, alkaline meadows, and forest margins across much of northern and northeastern China, Mongolia, and Korea. Tough, fibrous, persistent leaf-base sheaths surround the short, branching rhizome. The narrow, linear, slightly glaucous leaves are 20–50 cm long and 3–6 mm wide, forming dense tufts. In late spring and early summer, scapes shorter than or about equal to the leaves bear one to three pale lilac-blue to whitish flowers with darker veins on the falls. The fruit is a narrowly oblong capsule with a prominent beak, containing many flattened, dark brown to nearly black seeds with a small wing. The dried mature seeds are gathered in autumn and used medicinally.
Active Constituents
Irisquinone (pallasone A)
Prenylated benzoquinoneThe signature quinone of the seed and the constituent that carried Ma Lin Zi into modern oncology: it was developed in China as a hypoxic-cell radiosensitiser and marketed in capsule form as an adjunct to radiotherapy. It also inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in lung, liver, nasopharyngeal and ovarian tumour cell lines.
Pallasone B
Prenylated benzoquinoneOne of five quinones reported from the seed, structurally related to irisquinone and part of the lipophilic petroleum-ether fraction.
Pallasone C
Prenylated benzoquinoneA further seed benzoquinone reported alongside irisquinone and pallasone B.
Vitisin A
Resveratrol tetramer (oligostilbene)Concentration: 4.95 mg/g of dry seed, the most abundant stilbene oligomer in the seed
The dominant oligostilbene of Ma Lin Zi. At 10 micromolar it suppressed nitric oxide and IL-6 release and COX-2 expression in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages, which is the best current mechanistic support for the herb's traditional heat-clearing and swelling-reducing use.
trans-epsilon-Viniferin
Resveratrol dimer (oligostilbene)Concentration: 2.32 mg/g of dry seed
The main stilbene dimer of the seed. Dimers were inactive against viral neuraminidase in the assay where the tetramers were active, so the dimer fraction contributes antioxidant and anti-inflammatory rather than antiviral activity.
Vitisin B
Resveratrol tetramer (oligostilbene)Concentration: 1.64 mg/g of dry seed
A seed stilbene tetramer. The seed as a whole yields over 8 mg of stilbene oligomers per gram, making it one of the richest known plant sources of this class.
Vitisin C
Resveratrol tetramer (oligostilbene)The most potent viral neuraminidase inhibitor isolated from the seed, with an IC50 of 4.76 micromolar. Only the tetramer scaffolds were active and glycosylation abolished the activity.
Hopeaphenol
Resveratrol tetramer (oligostilbene)Reported for the first time from this plant in a seed-kernel study; at 10 micromolar it suppressed nitric oxide and IL-6 release and COX-2 expression in stimulated macrophages.
Vitisin A-13-O-beta-D-glucoside
Stilbene tetramer glycosideA glycosylated oligostilbene first described from Iris lactea seed kernels. It suppressed macrophage nitric oxide production, but glycosylation removes the neuraminidase-inhibitory activity of the parent aglycone.
Procyanidin B1
Proanthocyanidin (flavan-3-ol dimer)One of the seed's condensed tannins, reported alongside procyanidins B3 and B7 and catechin. The proanthocyanidin fraction is the part of the seed studied for effects on hepatic lipid metabolism.
Catechin
Flavan-3-olThe monomeric building block of the seed's procyanidins and part of its antioxidant flavonoid fraction.
Betulin
Lupane triterpeneA minor triterpene of the seed's non-polar fraction, reported together with beta-sitosterol and fatty acids.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Radiotherapy (ionising radiation)
Irisquinone, the principal benzoquinone of the seed, is a hypoxic-cell radiosensitiser and was developed in China specifically as a radiotherapy adjunct, given clinically in capsule form with radiotherapy. A patient self-medicating with Ma Lin Zi during a course of radiotherapy is therefore taking an unmeasured dose of a radiosensitising agent that the radiation oncologist has not accounted for.
Clinical note: Tell the treating oncology team before any patient on radiotherapy uses Ma Lin Zi, and do not add it to a radiotherapy course on your own initiative. The clinical radiosensitiser was a standardised irisquinone capsule, not the crude seed, and the two are not dose-equivalent.
Drugs used to support early pregnancy and fertility treatment (e.g. luteal-phase progesterone)
Extracts of the Iris lactea seed coat produced anti-implantation effects in mice. That is a direct pharmacodynamic opposition to any regimen whose purpose is to establish or maintain an early pregnancy, and it is the one reproducible reproductive signal reported for this drug.
Clinical note: Do not prescribe Ma Lin Zi to a woman who is trying to conceive, undergoing assisted reproduction, or in the first trimester. Stop it before a planned conception cycle.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 3 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
3
0 verified · 3 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Combined MS/MS-NMR Annotation Guided Discovery of Iris lactea var. chinensis Seed as a Source of Viral Neuraminidase Inhibitory Polyphenols
- Isolation of oligostilbenes from Iris lactea Pall. var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz and their anti-inflammatory activities
- Proanthocyanidins from Iris lactea Pall. var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by regulating lipid metabolism via AMPK/SREBP-1c signalling pathway
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
Combined MS/MS-NMR Annotation Guided Discovery of Iris lactea var. chinensis Seed as a Source of Viral Neuraminidase Inhibitory Polyphenols
Ten stilbene oligomers, two of them new, were annotated from Iris lactea var. chinensis seed by combined MS/MS and NMR. Only the tetramers inhibited viral neuraminidase, vitisin C being the most potent at IC50 4.76 micromolar, while dimers and glycosylated derivatives were inactive. The seed was quantified as containing over 8 mg of stilbene oligomers per gram, with vitisin A at 4.95 mg/g, trans-epsilon-viniferin at 2.32 mg/g and vitisin B at 1.64 mg/g.
Isolation of oligostilbenes from Iris lactea Pall. var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz and their anti-inflammatory activities
Four oligostilbenes were isolated from 22 kg of seed kernels: the new vitisin A-13-O-beta-D-glucoside, vitisin D, hopeaphenol (first from this plant) and vitisin A, the last being by far the most abundant. At 10 micromolar all four significantly suppressed nitric oxide production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages and all inhibited COX-2 expression, with three of the four also lowering IL-6.
Proanthocyanidins from Iris lactea Pall. var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by regulating lipid metabolism via AMPK/SREBP-1c signalling pathway
The proanthocyanidin fraction of Iris lactea var. chinensis was tested in a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease model and reduced hepatic lipid accumulation, the authors attributing the effect to AMPK activation with downstream suppression of SREBP-1c-driven lipogenesis. This is a metabolic indication with no counterpart in the classical heat-clearing and bleeding-stopping use of the seed.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynastyXin Xiu Ben Cao (Tang Materia Medica)
Tang dynastyReferences
- Run-Xiang Zhai, Xian-Jun Fu, Xia Ren. Malinzi, a traditional medicinal plants: Comprehensive review of botany, medical application, chemical composition, and pharmacology . Heliyon (2024) [DOI]
- Huanhuan Lv, Honglun Wang, Yanfeng He, Chenxu Ding, Xiaoyan Wang, Yourui Suo. Separation and purification of four oligostilbenes from Iris lactea Pall. var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz by high-speed counter-current chromatography . Journal of Chromatography B (2015) [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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