Sha Yuan Zi
StarAstragalus complanatus R. Br.
Traditionally used for
- Eye health
- Urinary & fluids
- Menstrual & women's health
- Fertility & vitality
- Energy & fatigue
☯ TCM Properties
Tonifies Kidney Yang; Secures Essence and Stops Enuresis; Nourishes the Liver and Brightens the Eyes
Traditional Chinese Uses
Sha Yuan Zi (astragalus complanatus seed) is a gentle, warm herb that tonifies Liver and Kidney, consolidates Jing, and brightens the eyes. It is used for spermatorrhea, impotence, excessive vaginal discharge, frequent urination, and lower back weakness arising from deficiency of Liver and Kidney. Its secondary action of brightening the eyes makes it appropriate when visual changes accompany Kidney-Liver deficiency patterns.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Astragalus complanatus is a low-growing perennial herb in the Fabaceae family, native to northern and central China and parts of Mongolia, where it grows on dry, sandy slopes and grasslands. The plant has prostrate or ascending stems, 20-100 cm long, branching from a woody base, and is covered with fine appressed hairs. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves bear 9-21 small elliptic to oblong leaflets, each 5-15 mm long, with entire margins. Small pale yellow pea-like flowers are borne in short axillary racemes in summer, followed by inflated, curved, papery legumes 2-3 cm long containing several seeds. The mature seeds (Sha Yuan Zi) are reniform, slightly flattened, 2-3 mm long, smooth, and greenish-brown to brownish-black. In TCM, they are used as a sweet, warm herb that tonifies the kidneys, secures essence, and improves vision.
Active Constituents
Complanatuside (complanatoside A)
Flavonol (myricetin-type) glycosideConcentration: 0.062-0.134% of authentic commercial seed samples; the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and the Taiwan Herbal Pharmacopeia both set a minimum of 0.06%, and the compound was undetectable in market samples identified as adulterants
The official marker compound for Semen Astragali Complanati and the basis of its identity assay, so its absence is used to expose substituted material. It is extensively metabolised after oral dosing, with glucuronidation and sulfonation the major routes and more than thirty metabolites detected in rat plasma and excreta, which means systemic exposure to the parent glycoside is low.
Myricetin and its glycosides
Flavonol and flavonol glycosidesConcentration: not quantified; present alongside complanatuside in the seed
In the isolation study of commercial Astragali Complanati Semen, two myricetin-derived glycosides showed greater antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in vitro than complanatuside itself, so the official marker compound is not necessarily the most active constituent of the drug.
Astragalin (kaempferol-3-O-glucoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: not quantified in the drug
A widely distributed flavonol glucoside reported among the seed flavonoids. Despite the name it is not distinctive to the genus and carries no evidence of a specific clinical effect at seed-level exposures.
Rhamnocitrin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside
Methylated flavonol glycosideConcentration: not quantified in the drug
One of the methylated flavonol glycosides reported from the seed. It is of interest mainly as part of the flavonoid fingerprint used to distinguish authentic material from adulterants.
Soyasaponin I
Oleanane triterpene saponinConcentration: not quantified in the drug
A legume-typical triterpene glycoside occurring in the seed. It contributes to the surfactant and mildly irritant character of a saponin-bearing seed drug; no clinical effect has been attributed to it at dispensing doses.
Polysaccharides
Plant polysaccharidesConcentration: not quantified; listed among the major constituent classes of the seed
Reported as one of the bulk constituent classes of the drug. Antioxidant and immunomodulatory activity has been claimed for Astragalus polysaccharides generally, but the data are not specific to Astragalus complanatus seed and should not be carried over from Huang Qi.
Fatty acids
Seed lipidsConcentration: not quantified; listed among the major constituent classes
As with other legume seeds a substantial part of the dry weight is fixed oil. This is pharmacologically inert at dispensing doses but is relevant to storage: rancidity is the practical quality problem with old Sha Yuan Zi.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Astragalus adsurgens seed, the documented market adulterant of Sha Yuan Zi
Astragalus adsurgens seed is the commonest adulterant of Astragali Complanati Semen because the two seeds are almost indistinguishable by eye; they separate reliably only on seed-coat and hilum microstructure, on the distribution of fat droplets in the cotyledon cells, or on chromatographic fingerprint. In a survey of eleven market samples from Taiwan, two southern samples had HPLC fingerprints unlike the rest and no detectable complanatuside, i.e. they were adulterants. A patient given such material receives none of the flavonoid fraction on which the drug's identity and reported activity rest.
Clinical note: Buy Sha Yuan Zi on a complanatuside assay (minimum 0.06%) or a fingerprint certificate rather than on appearance. Unexplained non-response to a Sha Yuan Zi-containing formula should raise the possibility of substituted seed before the dose is increased.
Huang Qi (Astragalus membranaceus root, Radix Astragali) and its documented drug interactions
Sha Yuan Zi is the ripe seed of Astragalus complanatus (Semen Astragali Complanati), a Kidney-securing drug assayed on complanatuside. Huang Qi is the root of Astragalus membranaceus, a Qi-tonifying drug assayed on astragaloside IV and Astragalus polysaccharides, and it is Huang Qi, not Sha Yuan Zi, for which immunostimulant activity and the resulting theoretical opposition to immunosuppressants such as ciclosporin and tacrolimus have been discussed. Neither drug's data transfer to the other. Note also that the taxonomic literature cites this species under more than one authority, Astragalus complanatus R. Br. and Astragalus complanatus Bunge, which further muddles catalogue matching; both refer to the same flatstem milkvetch seed.
Clinical note: Do not apply Huang Qi cautions or Huang Qi expectations to Sha Yuan Zi, and check on dispensing records that a prescription for one has not been filled with the other. The two are visually unmistakable, a seed against a sliced root, so the error is a labelling and ordering error, not a substitution that survives inspection.
Lipid-lowering drugs (statins, fibrates)
An extract of Astragali Complanati Semen lowered raised cholesterol in rats on a high-cholesterol diet, with metabolomic evidence pointing to upregulation of hepatic PPAR-alpha and increased fatty-acid oxidation, and a flavonoid fraction of the seed reduced markers of collagen synthesis and lipid peroxidation in rats with dimethylnitrosamine-induced hepatic fibrosis at 30-120 mg/kg. Both findings are rodent-only. No human pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic study of this drug with a statin or fibrate exists, and no CYP or transporter data are available for the seed, so an interaction is inferred from shared direction of effect alone.
Clinical note: No action needed beyond the usual lipid monitoring. Do not present Sha Yuan Zi as a lipid-lowering agent to a patient on a statin; the supporting evidence is animal data and does not justify altering the drug.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 9–15 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】9～15g。 【性味与归经】甘，温。归肝、肾经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
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
2 verified · 1 unverified
Show 3 studies
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
Bioactive Flavonoid Glycosides and HPLC and UPLC Quantification of Commercial Astragali Complanati Semen
Eleven compounds, nine of them flavonoid glycosides plus one isoflavone glycoside, were isolated from Astragali Complanati Semen and quantified by HPLC and UPLC in eleven commercial samples from Taiwan. Complanatuside ranged from 0.062% to 0.134%, meeting the 0.06% minimum of both the Chinese and Taiwan pharmacopoeias, while two southern samples had aberrant fingerprints and no detectable complanatuside and were identified as adulterants. Two myricetin-derived glycosides were more active than complanatuside in the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory assays used.
Quantification of complanatoside A in rat plasma using LC-MS/MS and its application to a pharmacokinetic study
A validated LC-MS/MS assay was developed for complanatoside A, the flavonol glycoside used as the Chinese Pharmacopoeia quality index for Astragalus complanatus, over 2.3-575 ng/mL in rat plasma, and applied to a pharmacokinetic study. The low plasma concentrations reported are consistent with extensive first-pass conjugation of the marker glycoside and caution against assuming that the assayed constituent is the circulating active.
Effect ofAstragalus complanatusflavonoid on anti-liver fibrosis in rats
Hepatic fibrosis was induced in rats with dimethylnitrosamine and Astragalus complanatus flavonoids were given at 30, 60 and 120 mg/kg once daily for one month. Superoxide dismutase activity rose and malondialdehyde fell relative to the model group, and serum PINP and PIIINP, markers of collagen synthesis, fell in the higher-dose groups. This is rodent evidence for an antifibrotic and antioxidant effect of an isolated flavonoid fraction, not of the dispensed seed, and there is no human counterpart.
References
- Ng YF, Tang PC-T, Sham TT, Lam WS, Mok DK-W, Chan SW. Semen Astragali Complanati: An ethnopharmacological, phytochemical and pharmacological review . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2014) [DOI]
- Kuo JC-L, Zhang L-J, Huang H-T, Liaw C-C, Lin Z-H, Liu M, Kuo Y-H. Bioactive Flavonoid Glycosides and HPLC and UPLC Quantification of Commercial Astragali Complanati Semen . Molecules (2020) [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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