Jiao Pan Lan
StarHerminium monorchis (L.) R. Br.
Traditionally used for
- Dizziness
- Digestion
- Menstrual & women's health
- Sleep
- Mood & calm
- Energy & fatigue
☯ TCM Properties
Tonifies Heart and Kidney Yang; Generates Fluids and Relieves Thirst; Strengthens the Spleen and Harmonizes the Middle; Regulates Qi and Promotes Menstruation; Nourishes Kidney Yin; Calms the Spirit
Traditional Chinese Uses
Jiao Pan Lan (角盘兰), also recorded under the aliases Ren Shen Guo (人参果) and Ren Tou Qi (人头七), is the whole herb with root of Herminium monorchis (L.) R. Br. (Orchidaceae), the musk orchid, dug in autumn and sun-dried. It is sweet in flavour and warm in nature. It enriches Yin and supplements the Kidney, nourishes the Stomach, and regulates menstruation. It is given for neurasthenia with dizziness and insomnia, for agitation with thirst and poor appetite, for premature greying of the hair and beard, and for irregular menstruation. The recorded dose is 3 to 4 qian (roughly 9 to 12 g) decocted, or steeped in wine. The drug is documented in the Quan Guo Zhong Cao Yao Hui Bian (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine, 1975); it has no entry in the classical materia medica and its indications are those of a modern regional tonic.
The alias Ren Shen Guo is shared with at least three unrelated plants and must not be used to order or substitute this drug: the tuber of Potentilla anserina (the Tibetan 人参果, dro-ma), the fruit of Solanum muricatum (pepino, sold as 人参果 as produce), and the fruit of Panax ginseng. None of these is Herminium monorchis, and the tonic profile of ginseng fruit in particular does not apply to this herb.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Herminium monorchis (Orchidaceae), the musk orchid or Ren Shen Guo, is a small terrestrial orchid 8-30 cm tall arising from a single ovoid underground tuber (the namesake monorchis, one-testicle). The slender erect stem bears 2-3 oblong-lanceolate basal leaves 3-10 cm long. Dense cylindrical spikes 2-8 cm long carry 20-70 minute, drooping, yellowish-green flowers with a distinctive sweet musky scent attractive to small parasitoid wasps. The plant inhabits damp calcareous grasslands, marshes, and montane meadows across temperate Eurasia from Britain to Japan. The tuber, harvested when the plant withers, is washed and dried for use in Tibetan and Chinese folk medicine, where it is regarded as a qi and yin tonic. (Sources: POWO; Wikipedia)
Active Constituents
Tuber polysaccharides / glucomannan (mucilage)
PolysaccharideConcentration: Major fraction of the tuber (not precisely quantified for this species)
Like other terrestrial orchids whose tubers yield salep, the fleshy tuber of Herminium monorchis is rich in mucilaginous polysaccharide (largely glucomannan). This demulcent, nutritive fraction is consistent with the traditional use of the tuber as a strengthening tonic and fluid-generating agent.
Stilbenoids / dihydrophenanthrenes
Phenolic (stilbenoid) compoundsConcentration: Not established for this species
Genus Herminium and related Orchidaceae characteristically produce stilbenoids and dihydrophenanthrenes with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Their presence in H. monorchis is inferred from the family chemotype rather than confirmed by dedicated phytochemical study; concentrations are undocumented.
Free sugars and amino acids
Monosaccharides / amino acidsConcentration: Minor
Orchid tubers typically contain free sugars and amino acids contributing to their sweetish taste and nutritive, tonic quality.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Ren Shen (Radix Ginseng, Panax ginseng) and ginseng berry preparations
The drug name Ren Shen Guo reads literally as ginseng fruit, and it is routinely mistaken for the fruit of Panax ginseng. It is not: Ren Shen Guo and Ren Tou Qi are recorded aliases of Jiao Pan Lan, the whole herb with root of the orchid Herminium monorchis, entered in the National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine as sweet and warm, enriching yin and supplementing the Kidney, nourishing the Stomach and regulating menstruation, for neurasthenia, dizziness and insomnia, agitation with thirst and poor appetite, premature greying and irregular menstruation, at 3 to 4 qian decocted or steeped in wine. An orchid and an araliad share no chemistry: there are no ginsenosides in Herminium. Applying ginseng expectations to this drug imports the whole ginseng interaction profile, including the interactions with warfarin, with MAO inhibitors such as phenelzine, and with antidiabetic drugs, none of which has any basis here.
Clinical note: Do not carry ginseng cautions or ginseng dosing across to this drug, and do not accept a ginseng-berry product as a fill for it. Confirm the supply is orchid material, whole herb with root, before dispensing. The corollary also holds: a patient who says they are taking ginseng fruit may be taking either drug, so ask which plant.
Ren Shen Guo of Tibetan medicine (Jue Ma, Potentilla anserina tuber) and the pepino fruit sold as Ren Shen Guo (Solanum muricatum)
Ren Shen Guo is one of the most heavily overloaded drug names in current Chinese use. In Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu and Sichuan it usually means Jue Ma, the swollen root tuber of Potentilla anserina, known in Tibetan as Dro-ma, recorded in Xizang Chang Yong Zhong Cao Yao, Zang Yao Zhi and Zhonghua Yao Hai, and used to supplement qi and blood, fortify the Spleen and Stomach, generate fluids and relieve thirst, and disinhibit dampness. In the produce trade it means the pepino, Solanum muricatum, a Solanaceae fruit sold under the same two characters. Neither is the orchid. The three plants are in three different families and share no constituent class; the shared name is an accident of the phrase meaning ginseng fruit being applied to any sweet tonic tuber or fruit.
Clinical note: Order by binomial. If Herminium monorchis is intended, ask for Jiao Pan Lan rather than Ren Shen Guo; if the Tibetan tonic is intended, ask for Jue Ma or Potentilla anserina. Ask patients who report taking Ren Shen Guo to describe or show the material, since a supermarket pepino and an orchid drug are not interchangeable in any sense.
Oral drugs with narrow absorption windows taken at the same time (levothyroxine, digoxin, bisphosphonates, oral iron)
The drug is a mucilaginous orchid tuber taken as a decoction or wine steep, and viscous soluble polysaccharide of the glucomannan type slows gastric emptying and can trap co-ingested drug in the gel phase. This is a well-characterised effect of glucomannan taken as a supplement. It is offered here only as a precaution, because the polysaccharide content of Herminium monorchis has never been measured and the mucilage load of a decoction at 9 to 12 g of dried whole herb is likely to be far below a supplement dose.
Clinical note: Separate the decoction from levothyroxine, digoxin, bisphosphonates or oral iron by at least two hours, which costs nothing. No interaction has been reported with this herb.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 9–12 g | — | — | — | 《全国中草药汇编》 (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine, 1975), under 角盘兰: 3–4 qian, decocted or steeped in wine. Not a Chinese Pharmacopoeia drug, so no ChP figure exists. Restores the dose lost when the corpus-wide filler clear emptied this field. |
| wine steep | 9–12 g | — | — | — | 《全国中草药汇编》 1975: 泡酒 — steeped in wine, same quantity. |
Preparation Methods
Decoction of tuber/root
Parts: Tuber, Whole herb with root
The tuber (or whole plant with root) is decocted and taken as a general tonic to strengthen the body, generate fluids and relieve thirst. Precise standardised dosing is not defined in mainstream Chinese pharmacopoeial sources; this is a minor folk/ethnobotanical medicinal.
Dried powder
Parts: Tuber
Dried tuber ground to powder and taken in small amounts as a restorative, mirroring the salep-type use of related orchid tubers.
Historical Texts
Quan Guo Zhong Cao Yao Hui Bian (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine), under the drug name Jiao Pan Lan
People's Republic of China, first edition 1975Absence from the classical Chinese materia medica
Han to Qing, c. 200 CE to 1911, no entryHimalayan, Tibetan and Mongolian regional usage of the musk orchid tuber
Undated oral transmission, documented in twentieth and twenty-first century ethnobotanical surveysName collision with the Tibetan Ren Shen Guo (Jue Ma, Potentilla anserina), recorded in Xizang Chang Yong Zhong Cao Yao and Zang Yao Zhi
People's Republic of China, twentieth century regional compilationsConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), family-wide listing of Orchidaceae
In force since 1975, with subsequent revisions of the appendicesTraditional Tibetan and Mongolian materia medica (ethnobotanical use)
TraditionalReferences
- Bhakta Bahadur Raskoti, André Schuiteman, Wei-Tao Jin, Xiao-Hua Jin. A taxonomic revision of Herminium L. (Orchidoideae, Orchidaceae) . PhytoKeys (2017) [DOI]
- Huawei Hu, Yanqiang Wei, Wenying Wang, Ji Suonan, Shixiong Wang, Zhe Chen, Jinhong Guan, Yanfang Deng. Richness and distribution of endangered orchid species under different climate scenarios on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau . Frontiers in Plant Science (2022) [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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