Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
- Pain & joints
- Skin
- Liver & jaundice
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and eliminates toxins; Invigorates the Blood and dispels water
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ma Ti Jin (Herba Dichondrae, from Dichondra micrantha / D. repens, Convolvulaceae) is a bitter, pungent, cool-to-slightly-cold herb of the drain-dampness group, entering the Liver and Lung (and Stomach) channels. It clears Heat and resolves toxicity while draining Damp-Heat, and is a well-documented folk remedy for damp-heat jaundice and hepatitis, hot painful or turbid urinary dysfunction, urinary stones, and edema.
It also invigorates the Blood and disperses water (promotes diuresis) and transforms turbidity, and is applied to bacillary dysentery, contusions, sprains, and swelling. Externally the pounded fresh herb dresses sores, boils, and traumatic wounds, aiding tissue healing and checking bleeding. It is used as fresh herb, expressed juice, or decoction. Its hepatoprotective and anti-HBV activity is attributed to phenylalanine dipeptides such as Matijin-Su, consistent with its traditional jaundice indications.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Dichondra repens (and the closely allied D. micrantha) is a low, creeping perennial herb of the Convolvulaceae, forming dense mats only 2–5 cm high across moist, shaded ground in subtropical and warm-temperate Asia, Australia, and naturalised elsewhere. The slender prostrate stems root freely at the nodes. Each long-petioled leaf bears a single small, reniform to broadly cordate blade 0.5–2.5 cm wide, soft and finely pubescent, vaguely resembling a horse's hoof or kidney — the source of common names 'horseshoe vine' and 'kidney weed'. Solitary, inconspicuous pale-greenish to white funnelform flowers about 2–3 mm across arise singly in the leaf axils on short pedicels. The entire above-ground plant is gathered fresh or air-dried for medicinal use, especially during the growing season.
Active Constituents
Matijin-Su
Phenylalanine dipeptideConcentration: The characteristic marker compound of the herb; systematic name (2S)-2-{[(2S)-2-benzamido-3-phenylpropanoyl]amino}-3-phenylpropyl acetate
The lead natural product of the drug and the origin of an entire synthetic programme: more than a hundred derivatives have been made from it, several inhibiting hepatitis B virus DNA replication in vitro at IC50 values well below lamivudine's. It is the structural parent of the investigational anti-HBV agent bentysrepinine.
Ursolic acid
Pentacyclic triterpenoidConcentration: One of five terpenoids reported from the whole plant; not quantified
A widespread plant triterpene with anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activity in animal and cell models. Its presence here is not distinctive — it also occurs in Glechoma longituba and many other herbs sharing a money grass name.
Tormentic acid
Pentacyclic triterpenoidConcentration: Reported from the whole plant; not quantified
A hydroxylated ursane triterpene reported among the terpenoid constituents of the herb. Pharmacology in this species has not been separately established.
Dichondrins A, B and C
Resin glycosidesConcentration: Three of six resin glycosides described from the plant
Genus-characteristic macrocyclic glycolipids. Resin glycosides are the class responsible for the purgative action of other Convolvulaceae drugs, which is a reason not to assume the herb is inert at high dose even though no toxicity study addresses them.
Scopoletin
CoumarinConcentration: One of three coumarins reported, alongside umbelliferone and skimmin
A common plant coumarin with reported anti-inflammatory and choleretic activity in preclinical models. It is not an anticoagulant coumarin and should not be treated as one, but it is the constituent that prompts caution about the class.
Umbelliferone
CoumarinConcentration: One of three coumarins reported from the whole plant
7-hydroxycoumarin, reported among the coumarin constituents. No species-specific pharmacology has been published.
beta-Sitosterol
PhytosterolConcentration: Reported from the whole plant; not quantified
A ubiquitous plant sterol, of no diagnostic value for this drug.
Volatile oil (monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes)
Essential oilConcentration: 62 components characterised in the review literature; total oil yield not consistently reported
A mixed monoterpene and sesquiterpene fraction. It has not been separately assayed for activity, and no individual component has been established as a marker.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Lysimachia christinae (Jin Qian Cao) and other money grass herbs
At least four unrelated species circulate in Chinese practice under money grass names and are regularly substituted for one another. Ma Ti Jin is Dichondra micrantha (Convolvulaceae), also traded as Xiao Jin Qian Cao. Jin Qian Cao proper is Lysimachia christinae (Primulaceae). Lian Qian Cao is Glechoma longituba (Lamiaceae). Guang Jin Qian Cao is Desmodium styracifolium (Fabaceae). The monographic review of this drug explicitly states that it is distinct from jinqiancao, Lysimachia christinae, because the confusion is common enough to need saying. The four have different constituent classes entirely — phenylalanine dipeptides and resin glycosides here, flavonoid glycosides in Lysimachia, phenylpropanoids and diterpenes in Glechoma, flavonoids and alkaloids in Desmodium — so a substitution is a change of drug, not a change of grade.
Clinical note: Prescribe and purchase by binomial, not by the money grass name. If a stone-dissolving indication is intended, confirm which species is actually in the packet, since the lithiasis evidence sits with Lysimachia, Desmodium and Glechoma rather than with Dichondra.
Dichondra repens J.R.Forst. and G.Forst.
Almost the entire Chinese chemical and pharmacological literature on this drug is published under the name Dichondra repens, including the standard review and the papers describing Matijin-Su. Genuine Dichondra repens J.R.Forst. and G.Forst. is confined to Australia and New Zealand; the Chinese material was reclassified as Dichondra micrantha Urb. Both names therefore refer to the same drug in the Chinese literature, but a literature search on the accepted binomial alone will miss most of the evidence.
Clinical note: When checking the evidence for this herb, search both binomials. Do not treat a paper on Dichondra repens from a Chinese group as a different plant, and do not assume that Australasian Dichondra repens material carries the same chemistry.
Entecavir
Bentysrepinine, the semisynthetic anti-HBV agent derived from this plant's phenylalanine dipeptide, was studied for interaction with entecavir. Its metabolite M8 proved to be a substrate of organic anion transporter 3 in rats and humans in vitro, and entecavir inhibited M8 uptake in hOAT3-transfected cells and rat kidney slices, although no pharmacokinetic change was seen on co-administration in rats. This concerns a purified derivative at drug doses, not the crude herb, and no transporter study of the herb or of Matijin-Su itself has been published.
Clinical note: Do not extrapolate the bentysrepinine data to decoctions of the herb in either direction. In a patient on nucleoside analogue antiviral therapy, treat the herb as untested rather than as cleared.
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
1
1 verified · 0 unverified
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
3
0 verified · 3 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Matijin-Su Derivatives as Potential Antihepatitis B Virus and Anticancer Agents
- OAT3 Participates in Drug–Drug Interaction between Bentysrepinine and Entecavir through Interactions with M8—A Metabolite of Bentysrepinine—In Rats and Humans In Vitro
- A Novel L-Phenylalanine Dipeptide Inhibits the Growth and Metastasis of Prostate Cancer Cells via Targeting DUSP1 and TNFSF9
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
Phase I, First-in-Human, Single and Multiple Ascending Dose- and Food-Effect Studies to Assess the Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of a Novel Anti-hepatitis B Virus Drug, Bentysrepinine (Y101), in Healthy Chinese Subjects
Ninety-four healthy Chinese volunteers in randomised double-blind placebo-controlled single-dose (50 to 900 mg) and multiple-dose (300 and 600 mg) studies plus an open crossover food-effect study. Bentysrepinine was well tolerated with mild reversible adverse events, the commonest being raised ALT and AST; the maximum tolerated dose was not reached; kinetics were non-linear with a half-life of about 1 to 3 hours and no accumulation on repeat dosing, and food increased absorption. Critically this is a purified derivative of repensine, a compound isolated from the plant, and not the herb; the trial says nothing about the safety of Ma Ti Jin decoctions.
Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Matijin-Su Derivatives as Potential Antihepatitis B Virus and Anticancer Agents
Semisynthetic derivatives of the plant's phenylalanine dipeptide Matijin-Su inhibited hepatitis B virus DNA replication with IC50 values of 2.18 to 8.55 micromolar, well below the 82.42 micromolar of the lamivudine control, and one derivative was more cytotoxic than 5-fluorouracil against two hepatocellular carcinoma lines. The activity belongs to the synthetic derivatives; the parent natural product was the starting point, not the tested agent.
OAT3 Participates in Drug–Drug Interaction between Bentysrepinine and Entecavir through Interactions with M8—A Metabolite of Bentysrepinine—In Rats and Humans In Vitro
Rat pharmacokinetics, rat kidney slice uptake and hOAT1/3-HEK293 assays showed that the bentysrepinine metabolite M8, not the parent, is an OAT3 substrate in rats and humans, and that entecavir inhibits its uptake in vitro. Co-administration in rats produced no significant pharmacokinetic change, and the authors concluded the combination is likely safe. Relevant to the derivative drug rather than to the herb.
A Novel L-Phenylalanine Dipeptide Inhibits the Growth and Metastasis of Prostate Cancer Cells via Targeting DUSP1 and TNFSF9
A phenylalanine dipeptide of the Matijin-Su series inhibited prostate cancer cell growth and migration, with DUSP1 and TNFSF9 implicated as targets. Cell-based work on a single compound class; it does not support any clinical claim for the herb.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi (Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica), Zhao Xuemin
Qing dynasty, 1765Zhonghua Ben Cao (Chinese Materia Medica), State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Modern, 1999References
- Yao Q, Wang Y, Dong Z, Lai C, Chang B, Gong Q, Ren S, Sun D, Lu J, Gao Y. Dichondra repens J.R.Forst. and G.Forst.: A Review of Its Traditional Uses, Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Applications . Frontiers in Pharmacology (2021) [DOI]
- Fan H, Zhang A, Liao C, Yang Y, Zhang L, Liu J, Xia Y, Si D, Dong S, Liu C. In vitro metabolism and in vivo pharmacokinetics of bentysrepinine (Y101), an investigational new drug for anti-HBV-infected hepatitis: focus on interspecies comparison . Xenobiotica (2020) [DOI]
- Shao X, Kuang A, Xu G, Yu G, Xu B, Kong X, Meng X, Zeng X. Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Novel Trifluoromethylated Dipeptide Mimetics of Matijin-Su as Potent Anti-HBV Agents . Chemistry & Biodiversity (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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