Mao Mei
StarRubus parvifolius L.
Synonyms: Rubus triphyllus Thunb.
Traditionally used for
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
- Pain & joints
- Skin
- Liver & jaundice
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
☯ TCM Properties
Dissipates Blood Stasis, removes toxicity, kills parasites and alleviates pain
Traditional Chinese Uses
Mao Mei (Herba Rubi Parvifolii) is the root, stem or whole plant of Rubus parvifolius, a folk medicinal of southern and eastern China. Sweet and sour in flavour and neutral in nature, it is used to invigorate and cool the Blood, dissipate Blood Stasis, clear Heat and resolve toxicity, disperse accumulations, promote urination and reduce swelling, and to relieve pain. Its tannin-rich tissues also give it an astringent, bleeding- and diarrhoea-checking action.
Traditional indications include enteritis and dysentery, jaundice and chronic hepatitis, hepatosplenomegaly, urinary tract infection and stones, rheumatic bone pain, and traumatic contusions with swelling and pain, for which it may be decocted internally or applied topically for sores and eczema. It is a country remedy rather than a mainstream classical herb, so it appears more in folk and regional practice than in the major materia medica formulas.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Mao Mei (茅莓), source of Herba/Radix Rubi Parvifolii, is Rubus parvifolius L. (Rosaceae), a scrambling deciduous shrub 0.5-2 m tall common on sunny hillsides, thickets, and roadside waste across China, Japan, Korea, and eastern Asia. The arching prickly stems bear pinnately compound leaves of three to five broadly rhombic, white-tomentose, doubly serrate leaflets. Small pink to rose five-petalled flowers form loose corymbs, ripening into hemispherical red aggregate fruits of juicy drupelets. The whole plant or root is used as the drug. Bitter, astringent, and cool, it dispels blood stasis, resolves toxicity, kills parasites, and relieves pain, used for traumatic injury, rheumatic pain, dysentery, hepatitis, and bleeding. It should not be confused with Mei/Wu Mei, the fruit of Prunus mume.
Sunny hillsides, scrub thickets, forest margins, roadsides, and waste ground at low to middle elevations.
Active Constituents
Ursolic acid
Ursane-type pentacyclic triterpenoidConcentration: reported from the root; not quantified in the standard drug
The most cited triterpenoid of the species and a candidate active. Its practical limitation is pharmacokinetic: oral bioavailability in rodents is roughly 1-3%, and most of the efficacy work that uses it was done by intraperitoneal injection rather than by the oral route a decoction takes.
Nigaichigoside F1
Triterpenoid saponinConcentration: reported from the root; not quantified in the standard drug
One of the saponins carried in the total saponin fraction (TSRP) that most of the species-specific pharmacology uses, and a marker cited in the anti-fatigue work.
Suavissimoside R1
Triterpenoid saponinConcentration: reported from the root; not quantified in the standard drug
A candidate active metabolite supported by bioactivity-guided fractionation in this species rather than inferred from other Rubus species.
Sanguiin H-6
EllagitanninConcentration: reported from the plant; not quantified in the standard drug
A dimeric ellagitannin common in Rosaceae and among the candidate actives flagged for this species. Ellagitannins of this size are poorly absorbed intact and are largely metabolised by gut flora.
Quercetin 3,7-diglucoside
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 12.73 mg/g dry weight of the leaf extract
The single most abundant quantified compound in the leaf, in an extract that suppressed IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1 in TNF-alpha/IFN-gamma-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes. Note that this quantification is for the leaf; the drug used in Chinese practice is usually the whole herb or root.
Hirsutrin (quercetin 3-O-glucoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 4.74 mg/g dry weight of the leaf extract
The second most abundant leaf flavonoid quantified, contributing to the extract's anti-inflammatory profile in the keratinocyte model.
Ellagic acid
Ellagitannin-derived phenolicConcentration: 1.58 mg/g dry weight of the leaf extract; also reported from root and fruit
Present across root, fruit and leaf and responsible for part of the antioxidant activity attributed to the plant.
Kaempferol 3-O-glucuronide
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 0.31 mg/g dry weight of the leaf extract
A minor quantified leaf flavonoid in the same profile.
Parvifolactone A and rubuside P
Oleanane-type triterpenoidsConcentration: isolated from the roots; not quantified
Two new oleananes described from the roots alongside eleven known triterpenoids including fupenzic acid, euscaphic acid and maslinic acid. No pharmacology has been published for the two new compounds themselves.
4-Hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene
Volatile phenylpropanoidConcentration: reported as about 66% of the leaf volatile oil
The dominant component of the leaf volatile oil, to which the broad-spectrum in vitro antibacterial activity of that oil is attributed. It is not a component of a water decoction of the root.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs
Mao Mei is classified as a stasis-dissipating, blood-moving herb, which is often taken to imply an antiplatelet or anticoagulant effect. For this species that inference is unsupported: the 2026 review found no coagulation or platelet pharmacology for R. parvifolius, and no published pharmacokinetic data for any candidate marker after oral dosing. The honest position is that the interaction can neither be predicted nor excluded.
Clinical note: If a patient on anticoagulation takes Mao Mei, monitor INR or anti-Xa as you would for any new unstudied botanical rather than assuming a class effect.
Use in pregnancy alongside any medication
The Guangdong Provincial Standard for Chinese Medicinal Materials (2019) carries a pregnancy contraindication for this drug, based on traditional experience rather than study data. The 2026 review is explicit that no subchronic, chronic, genotoxicity, reproductive or developmental toxicity studies have been published for R. parvifolius; the only toxicity data are acute, with total saponins tolerated to 3.0 g/kg intraperitoneally and 10 g/kg intragastrically in mice.
Clinical note: Observe the contraindication in pregnancy. Do not present the absence of toxicity studies as reassurance.
Fu Pen Zi (Rubus chingii unripe fruit) and Rubus coreanus (bogbunja)
Most of the Rubus phytochemistry and pharmacology in circulation is for R. chingii or R. coreanus, not for R. parvifolius. Fu Pen Zi is the unripe fruit of R. chingii, a warm kidney-supplementing astringent used for enuresis and seminal emission; Mao Mei is the whole herb or root of R. parvifolius, a cooling stasis-dissipating and toxin-resolving drug. Data on one should not be read across to the other, and the species should not be substituted in dispensing.
Clinical note: Check the binomial and the plant part on the label. Root or whole herb of R. parvifolius is the drug; fruit of another Rubus is not.
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
0 verified · 4 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Total Saponins of Rubus Parvifolius L. Exhibited Anti-Leukemia Effect in vivo through STAT3 and eIF4E Signaling Pathways
- Total saponins in Rubus parvifolius L. induce lymphoma cells apoptosis through upregulated Bax/Fas and downregulated Bcl-2 in vivo and in vitro
- Total saponins from Rubus parvifolius L. inhibits cell proliferation, migration and invasion of malignant melanoma in vitro and in vivo
- Phytochemical Profiling and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Rubus parvifolius Leaf Extract in an Atopic Dermatitis Model
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
Total Saponins of Rubus Parvifolius L. Exhibited Anti-Leukemia Effect in vivo through STAT3 and eIF4E Signaling Pathways
K562 chronic myeloid leukaemia xenografts in nude mice were treated with total saponins of R. parvifolius at 20, 40 and 100 mg/kg against a vehicle and a cytarabine control. Tumour growth rate and weight fell significantly, HE and TUNEL staining showed apoptosis, bcl-2 was downregulated, and phosphorylation of eIF4E and STAT3 decreased.
Total saponins in Rubus parvifolius L. induce lymphoma cells apoptosis through upregulated Bax/Fas and downregulated Bcl-2 in vivo and in vitro
From the same group as the leukaemia work, reporting apoptosis induction in lymphoma cells with upregulated Bax and Fas and downregulated Bcl-2 both in cell culture and in vivo. The journal is a low-visibility one and the finding has not been independently replicated.
Total saponins from Rubus parvifolius L. inhibits cell proliferation, migration and invasion of malignant melanoma in vitro and in vivo
Total saponins inhibited proliferation, invasion and migration of human A375 melanoma cells in vitro, and in sixty A375 xenograft nude mice, 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg for fourteen days blocked tumour growth against vehicle with cyclophosphamide as comparator. Lung metastasis after tail-vein injection of A375 cells was also reduced.
Phytochemical Profiling and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Rubus parvifolius Leaf Extract in an Atopic Dermatitis Model
Quantified five leaf flavonoids and phenolics totalling 19.36 mg/g, led by quercetin 3,7-diglucoside at 12.73 mg/g and hirsutrin at 4.74 mg/g. In TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes the extract dose-dependently suppressed IL-6, IL-8 and chemokine expression, with 73.0% inhibition of MCP-1 at 100 ug/mL.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Shi Yi (Supplement to the Materia Medica)
Tang dynasty, 739 CEQuan Guo Zhong Cao Yao Hui Bian (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine)
Modern, 1975Guangdong Provincial Standard for Chinese Medicinal Materials
Modern, 2019References
- Duan B, Zhang C, Hu X, Bai X, Peng H, Zhao H. Ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of Rubus parvifolius L (Máoméi): evidence and translational challenges . Frontiers in Pharmacology (2026) [DOI]
- Choi JS, Son BW, Do JC. Triterpenoids from the roots of Rubus parvifolius . Archives of Pharmacal Research (1991) [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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