Shi Da Gong Lao Ye
StarMahonia bealei (Fortune) Carrière
Traditionally used for
- Dizziness
- Eye health
- Ears & hearing
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Bowel health
- Pain & joints
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Breastfeeding
- Young children
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, nourishes Yin , relieves cough and resolves Phlegm
Traditional Chinese Uses
Shi Da Gong Lao Ye, the leaf of Mahonia bealei (Folium Mahoniae), is a bitter, cold herb entering the lung channel that clears heat, nourishes yin, and resolves phlegm to relieve cough. It is used chiefly for yin-deficient and consumptive (lung tuberculosis-type) coughs, including cough with blood-streaked sputum, tidal fever and night sweats, as well as sore throat, red eyes, dizziness and tinnitus. Because it also supplements the kidney and cools deficiency heat, it is applied to soreness and weakness of the lower back and knees with underlying yin depletion. Rich in berberine and related alkaloids, it additionally treats damp-heat patterns such as dysentery and sores, and is used externally, pounded, for skin lesions. It is contraindicated in spleen-stomach deficiency cold.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Shi Da Gong Lao Ye (十大功劳叶) is the dried leaf of Mahonia bealei (Fortune) Carrière and Mahonia fortunei (Lindl.) Fedde, evergreen shrubs in the Berberidaceae of southern and central China. Each leathery, pinnately compound leaf measures 25–50 cm long and consists of 7–19 stiff, ovate to lanceolate leaflets with strongly spinose-dentate margins resembling holly, paler glaucous green beneath in M. bealei and somewhat narrower in M. fortunei. Leaves are gathered year-round, sun-dried, and broken into pieces for use. The yellow tinge of the cut petioles and main veins reflects the berberine content; leaves carry lower alkaloid concentrations than the root but are used similarly for clearing heat, draining damp, and treating infections, coughs, and chronic skin conditions.
Active Constituents
Berberine
Protoberberine (quaternary benzylisoquinoline) alkaloidConcentration: Present in the leaf but markedly lower than in the stem and root, which is why only stem and root are used as the official alkaloid drug; leaf alkaloid content rises after UV-B exposure
Berberine is the compound recovered by bioactivity-guided fractionation of the leaf water extract and accounts for a large part of its antiproliferative action, with an IC50 of 36.54 microM against HT-29 human colon carcinoma cells. It is also the constituent responsible for most of the antibacterial activity attributed to Mahonia drugs, and it is the source of the herb's clinically important interactions.
Jatrorrhizine
Protoberberine alkaloidOne of the benzylisoquinoline alkaloids quantified in Mahonia bealei leaf, and one of the four leaf alkaloids whose levels increase under UV-B irradiation. Reported as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor in Mahonia bealei extract.
Palmatine
Protoberberine alkaloidCo-occurs with berberine and jatrorrhizine in the leaf. Contributes to the antimicrobial and cholinesterase-inhibitory activity ascribed to the crude leaf extract.
Columbamine
Protoberberine alkaloidA minor leaf alkaloid of Mahonia bealei that co-elutes with the other protoberberines and shares their acetylcholinesterase-inhibitory profile.
Chlorogenic acid
Hydroxycinnamic acid ester (caffeoylquinic acid)Concentration: One of the three principal phenolics of the leaf; 8.3 mg isolated at greater than 92% purity from a 240 mg ethyl acetate fraction
A major non-alkaloid antioxidant of the leaf. It scavenged DPPH radicals with an IC50 of 18.45 micrograms/mL, intermediate between the two flavonol glycosides isolated alongside it.
Quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (isoquercitrin)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 20.5 mg isolated at greater than 92% purity from a 240 mg ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf
The most potent radical scavenger of the three main leaf phenolics, with a DPPH IC50 of 9.64 micrograms/mL, and the strongest in superoxide scavenging and cell-protection assays. Flavonoids of this type are a leaf-specific feature; the root and stem drugs are dominated by alkaloids instead.
Isorhamnetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 28.4 mg isolated at greater than 92% purity from a 240 mg ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf
The most abundant of the three phenolics isolated from the leaf by high-speed counter-current chromatography, though the weakest antioxidant of the three, with a DPPH IC50 of 36.51 micrograms/mL.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Ciclosporin (cyclosporine A)
In renal transplant recipients, berberine 0.2 g three times daily raised ciclosporin trough and total exposure substantially, consistent with inhibition of intestinal and hepatic CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein. The trial used isolated berberine, not Mahonia leaf, and the leaf carries less alkaloid than the stem or root, so the size of the effect from a leaf decoction is unknown and could be smaller. The direction of the interaction is nonetheless established for the alkaloid the leaf contains.
Clinical note: Do not combine with ciclosporin, tacrolimus or sirolimus without drug-level monitoring. If the patient insists on continuing, levels should be checked within one to two weeks of starting and again on stopping.
Use in neonates, in late pregnancy and with bilirubin-displacing drugs (ceftriaxone, sulfonamides)
Berberine displaces bilirubin from its albumin binding site, raising free unconjugated bilirubin. This is the documented basis of the long-standing prohibition on giving berberine-containing drugs to neonates, jaundiced infants and women near term, and the risk is additive with other albumin-displacing agents such as ceftriaxone and sulfonamides.
Clinical note: Do not prescribe Mahonia leaf to neonates, to jaundiced or G6PD-deficient infants, or to women in the third trimester or breastfeeding a jaundiced newborn.
Ilex cornuta leaf (Gong Lao Ye, Folium Ilicis Cornutae) supplied in place of Mahonia leaf
This is an identity hazard rather than a pharmacodynamic one. In most Chinese markets the commercial article sold as Gong Lao Ye is the leaf of Ilex cornuta (Aquifoliaceae), not Mahonia (Berberidaceae), and the two names Gong Lao Ye and Shi Da Gong Lao Ye are used interchangeably by suppliers. The confusion is old: Ben Jing Feng Yuan and Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi treat Shi Da Gong Lao as a synonym for Ilex cornuta, while Zhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao illustrates the true Mahonia. Ilex cornuta leaf contains no protoberberine alkaloids, so a substituted batch will neither carry berberine's antimicrobial activity nor its interaction risk. Mahonia fortunei and Berberis species are also traded interchangeably with Mahonia bealei and have closely similar chemical fingerprints, differing mainly in berberine content.
Clinical note: Specify Mahonia bealei by binomial when ordering, and check the leaflets: Mahonia bealei leaf is pinnate with 2 to 8 spiny teeth on each margin, whereas Ilex cornuta leaf is simple with a few stout terminal spines.
Metformin, sulfonylureas and insulin
Berberine has a well-characterised glucose-lowering action through AMPK activation and gut microbiota modulation. No study has tested Mahonia bealei leaf itself in diabetic subjects, and the leaf carries less berberine than the root or stem, so this is an extrapolation from the isolated alkaloid rather than a demonstrated herb interaction.
Clinical note: If a diabetic patient takes the leaf as a daily tea, ask them to monitor capillary glucose for the first two weeks rather than assuming no effect.
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
- Antioxidant and antiproliferative properties of water extract from Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. leaves
- Target-Guided Isolation of Three Main Antioxidants from Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. Leaves Using HSCCC
- Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. Leaf extract modulates the TLR2/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway to inhibit PGN-induced inflammation in RAW264.7 cells
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
Antioxidant and antiproliferative properties of water extract from Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. leaves
The leaf water extract scavenged DPPH radicals with an IC50 of 60.46 micrograms/mL and removed about 71% of superoxide radicals at 500 micrograms/mL. It inhibited growth of HT-29 human colon cancer cells concentration-dependently, increased the apoptotic fraction and reduced survivin expression. Bioactivity-guided fractionation identified berberine as a principal active, with an IC50 of 36.54 microM on HT-29. The paper also records that the leaf is drunk as a tea beverage south of the Qinling Mountains, which is the everyday use of the leaf drug as opposed to the root.
Target-Guided Isolation of Three Main Antioxidants from Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. Leaves Using HSCCC
One-step counter-current separation of the leaf ethyl acetate fraction yielded chlorogenic acid, quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside and isorhamnetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, each above 92% purity. Radical-scavenging potency ranked quercetin-3-O-glucoside (DPPH IC50 9.64 micrograms/mL) above chlorogenic acid (18.45) above isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside (36.51), with the same ordering in superoxide and cell-protection assays. This is the best-characterised non-alkaloid chemistry of the leaf specifically.
Mahonia bealei (Fort.) Carr. Leaf extract modulates the TLR2/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway to inhibit PGN-induced inflammation in RAW264.7 cells
Nineteen components were profiled in the leaf extract by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. In peptidoglycan-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages the leaf extract lowered nitric oxide, PGE2, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6 and reactive oxygen species, and reduced TLR2, MyD88, IKK and NF-kappaB expression, giving a mechanism for the anti-inflammatory effect the same group had previously shown in xylene-induced ear swelling in mice and cotton-pellet granuloma in rats. All of the evidence for the leaf remains cellular and animal; there are no human trials of Mahonia bealei leaf.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Zai Xin
Qing dynastyZhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao
Qing dynasty, 1848Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi
Qing dynasty, 1765References
- He JM, Mu Q. The medicinal uses of the genus Mahonia in traditional Chinese medicine: An ethnopharmacological, phytochemical and pharmacological review . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2015) [DOI]
- Liu A, Liu S, Li Y, Tao M, Han H, Zhong Z, Zhu W, Tian J. Phosphoproteomics Reveals Regulation of Secondary Metabolites in Mahonia bealei Exposed to Ultraviolet-B Radiation . Frontiers in Plant Science (2022) [DOI]
- Wu X, Li Q, Xin H, Yu A, Zhong M. Effects of berberine on the blood concentration of cyclosporin A in renal transplanted recipients: clinical and pharmacokinetic study . European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2005) [DOI]
- Chan E. Displacement of Bilirubin from Albumin by Berberine . Biology of the Neonate (1993) [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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