Shi Hu
StarDendrobium nobile Lindl.
Traditionally used for
- Eye health
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
- Energy & fatigue
☯ TCM Properties
Benefits the Stomach and Generates Fluids; Nourishes Yin and clears Heat; Nourishes Kidney Yin; Brightens the Eyes; Strengthens the Sinews and Bones
Traditional Chinese Uses
Shi Hu (dendrobium stem) is a cool, sweet, precious herb that nourishes Yin and generates Body Fluids in the Stomach, Lung, and Kidney. It addresses the dryness patterns of thirst, dry mouth, and scanty saliva resulting from febrile illness depleting fluids, as well as chronic Yin deficiency patterns with dry eyes, blurred vision, lower back weakness, and bone-steaming deficiency heat. Its gentle nourishing and cooling properties have made it a treasured ingredient in restorative and anti-aging formulas.
Western Herbalism Properties
Pharmacological Effects
- Anti-cataract: Delayed galactose cataract in rats (hyaline lens preserved at 36.8%); oral decoction normalized lens cholesterol, peroxides, NADP/NADPH and galactose, and the ethyl acetate extract inhibited aldose reductase.
Source: Zhu YP. Chinese Materia Medica: Chemistry, Pharmacology and Applications. Harwood Academic, 1998, p. 633.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Dendrobium nobile Lindl. (Orchidaceae) is an epiphytic orchid native to the Himalayan foothills and southern China, Indochina, and parts of India, growing on tree trunks and mossy rocks in humid montane forests. It produces clustered, yellowish-green pseudobulb-like canes 30-60 cm tall, with alternate, oblong-lanceolate, leathery leaves arrayed along their length. In late winter and spring, fragrant flowers in pairs or threes emerge from the nodes of leafless canes; petals and sepals are white tipped with rose-purple, and the lip bears a deep maroon throat patch. The dried stem (Shi Hu) is harvested as a yin tonic of long standing in Chinese medicine, valued for nourishing fluids and clearing heat.
Active Constituents
Dendrobine
Picrotoxane-type sesquiterpene alkaloidConcentration: the Chinese Pharmacopoeia requires not less than 0.40% dendrobine in the Dendrobium nobile drug; total alkaloids are about 0.3-0.5% of the dried stem, of which dendrobine accounts for about 92.6%; content falls as the plant ages, being highest in one-year-old stems
The official marker and dominant alkaloid of Dendrobium nobile, and the compound that distinguishes this drug chemically from every other Dendrobium sold as Shi Hu. In rodent models it improves cognitive measures and reduces amyloid pathology, and the alkaloid fraction is neuroprotective in cell and animal models of Alzheimer's disease. All of this evidence is preclinical; the reviews state plainly that the alkaloid has not been studied in patients.
Dendrobine-N-oxide
Sesquiterpene alkaloid N-oxideConcentration: about 3.3% of the total alkaloid fraction of the dried stem
The second most abundant alkaloid of the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction. Its contribution to the fraction's activity has not been separated from that of dendrobine.
Nobilonine
Sesquiterpene alkaloidConcentration: about 2.0% of the total alkaloid fraction
A minor alkaloid characteristic of Dendrobium nobile, useful as a species marker in chromatographic authentication of Shi Hu.
Dendroxine
Sesquiterpene alkaloidConcentration: about 0.9% of the total alkaloid fraction
A trace alkaloid of the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction with no separately characterised pharmacology.
6-Hydroxynobilonine
Sesquiterpene alkaloidConcentration: about 0.32% of the total alkaloid fraction
A trace hydroxylated alkaloid reported in the compositional analysis of the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction; of analytical rather than therapeutic interest.
13-Hydroxy-14-oxodendrobine
Oxidised sesquiterpene alkaloidConcentration: about 0.07% of the total alkaloid fraction
The least abundant of the six alkaloids identified in the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction; recorded for completeness of the fingerprint.
Anosmine
Imidazolium-type alkaloidConcentration: not quantified as a percentage of the drug; reported as the dominant water-soluble metabolite signal in Dendrobium nobile, absent from the comparator species
A rare imidazolium alkaloid whose presence is the single clearest way to tell a polar extract of Dendrobium nobile from Dendrobium officinale, Dendrobium loddigesii or Flickingeria fimbriata. It has no established pharmacology; its value here is as a species marker in a drug that is heavily substituted.
Phenanthrenes and bibenzyls
Phenanthrene and bibenzyl (stilbenoid-related) polyphenolsConcentration: not quantified; seventeen phenanthrenes have been reported from stem extracts, including 3,4,8-trimethoxyphenanthrene-2,5-diol
The polyphenol class that accounts for much of the reported anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activity of Dendrobium extracts in vitro, including effects on nitric oxide production in immune cells. Composition varies widely between Dendrobium species, so activity reported for one species should not be assumed for material sold under the same pinyin name.
Polysaccharides (glucomannans)
Water-soluble polysaccharidesConcentration: not quantified for Dendrobium nobile; the polysaccharide fraction rises with plant age as the alkaloid fraction falls
The polysaccharide fraction is the basis of most fluid-generating and immunomodulatory claims made for Shi Hu, but it is the dominant constituent of Dendrobium officinale rather than of Dendrobium nobile, and much published Dendrobium polysaccharide research uses that species. Within Dendrobium nobile, alkaloids and glycosides move in opposite directions with stem age, so a batch chosen for high polysaccharide content will be low in dendrobine and vice versa.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Other Dendrobium species dispensed as Shi Hu: Dendrobium officinale (Tie Pi Shi Hu), Dendrobium chrysotoxum, Dendrobium fimbriatum, Dendrobium huoshanense, Dendrobium loddigesii, Dendrobium devonianum, and Flickingeria fimbriata
Shi Hu is a pinyin name shared across the genus. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia treats Dendrobium nobile stem as one drug, assayed on not less than 0.40% dendrobine, and Dendrobium officinale stem (Tie Pi Shi Hu) as a separate drug; other species including Dendrobium chrysotoxum, Dendrobium fimbriatum and Dendrobium huoshanense also circulate as Shi Hu. Their chemistry is not interchangeable: a comparative metabolite study found the dominant water-soluble signals to be anosmine in Dendrobium nobile, shihunine in Dendrobium loddigesii, and fructose isomers plus malic acid in Dendrobium officinale, with a novel diglucoside in Flickingeria fimbriata. Dendrobium devonianum is a documented substitute for Dendrobium officinale, separable only by HPLC fingerprint or by the markers violanthin and isoviolanthin. A prescription written for the alkaloid-bearing drug and filled with a polysaccharide drug, or the reverse, delivers a different pharmacology under a correct-looking label.
Clinical note: Require the binomial and a dendrobine assay on the certificate of analysis, not the pinyin name alone. If a supplier cannot say which Dendrobium species the material is, treat the batch as an unknown drug. Do not carry Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide research across to Dendrobium nobile, or dendrobine research across to Dendrobium officinale.
Wild-collected and internationally traded material (all Dendrobium species are CITES Appendix II)
Every species of Dendrobium is listed on CITES Appendix II, which places international trade in the plants and their parts under permit control. Wild Dendrobium has been heavily overharvested: the literature describes persistent market demand driving overharvesting of wild Dendrobium to the point that it is described as endangered, with collection also damaging the habitat the genus depends on, and depletion in China now spilling over into neighbouring countries. How much of the medicinal supply is cultivated is genuinely contested rather than settled. Large-scale cultivation of Dendrobium nobile and especially Dendrobium officinale is well established in southern China, yet a 2020 review of Dendrobium habitat states flatly that the world's medicinal Dendrobium is almost exclusively sourced from the wild, and a 2025 orchid-trade review notes that material traded as cultivated is sometimes suspected of being wild-collected, as with Dendrobium chrysotoxum exported from Laos. The claim that Shi Hu is now a cultivated drug should therefore be treated as true of specific supply chains that can document it, and not assumed of a given batch. Separately, the EU has placed Dendrobium nobile in its novel food catalogue, so it is not freely usable in food supplements in the EU without authorisation.
Clinical note: Source only from suppliers who can document cultivated origin and, for imported material, valid CITES paperwork; keep that documentation. Refuse wild-collected stems. In the EU, do not supply Dendrobium nobile as a food supplement ingredient.
Antidiabetic drugs (metformin, insulin, sulfonylureas)
Dendrobium extracts and the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction have shown glucose-lowering and lipid-modifying effects in rodent and cell models, including regulation of LDL uptake through the LXR-alpha/IDOL/LDLR pathway in HepG2 cells. There is no human trial of Dendrobium nobile or its alkaloid fraction in diabetic patients; the review literature states explicitly that the alkaloid has not been studied in patients. Any interaction is therefore extrapolated from animal pharmacology, and it is further weakened by the substitution problem above, since a given batch of Shi Hu may contain little of the alkaloid the animal work used.
Clinical note: No dose change is warranted on this basis alone, but if Shi Hu is added to the regimen of a patient whose glucose is tightly controlled, keep normal monitoring in place and do not assume the herb is inert.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 6–12 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】6～12g；鲜品15～30g。 【性味与归经】甘，微寒。归胃、肾经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
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
1 verified · 3 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Dendrobium nobile Lindl. Alkaloids Ameliorate Cognitive Dysfunction in Senescence Accelerated SAMP8 Mice by Decreasing Amyloid-β Aggregation and Enhancing Autophagy Activity
- Dendrobium Nobile Lindl. Alkaloid Suppresses NLRP3-Mediated Pyroptosis to Alleviate LPS-Induced Neurotoxicity
- Dendrobine Ameliorates Alzheimer’s Disease-like Pathology and Cognitive Decline in 3 × Tg-AD Mice
- Study on the Polar Extracts of Dendrobium nobile, D. officinale, D. loddigesii, and Flickingeria fimbriata: Metabolite Identification, Content Evaluation, and Bioactivity Assay
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
Dendrobium nobile Lindl. Alkaloids Ameliorate Cognitive Dysfunction in Senescence Accelerated SAMP8 Mice by Decreasing Amyloid-β Aggregation and Enhancing Autophagy Activity
The Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction improved cognitive performance in senescence-accelerated SAMP8 mice, with reduced amyloid-beta aggregation and increased autophagic activity offered as the mechanism. This is a rodent study of an isolated alkaloid fraction, not of the decocted stem, and it does not establish a cognitive indication in humans.
Dendrobium Nobile Lindl. Alkaloid Suppresses NLRP3-Mediated Pyroptosis to Alleviate LPS-Induced Neurotoxicity
The Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction protected hippocampal neurons and working memory against lipopolysaccharide-induced neurotoxicity, with suppression of NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis proposed as the mechanism. Preclinical only; the finding concerns an isolated alkaloid fraction of Dendrobium nobile and cannot be attributed to Shi Hu of unverified species.
Dendrobine Ameliorates Alzheimer’s Disease-like Pathology and Cognitive Decline in 3 × Tg-AD Mice
Isolated dendrobine, rather than the whole alkaloid fraction, reduced Alzheimer's-like pathology and cognitive decline in triple-transgenic 3 × Tg-AD mice. It supports dendrobine as the active principle of the Dendrobium nobile alkaloid fraction but remains an animal study of a purified compound.
Study on the Polar Extracts of Dendrobium nobile, D. officinale, D. loddigesii, and Flickingeria fimbriata: Metabolite Identification, Content Evaluation, and Bioactivity Assay
Polar extracts of the four taxa most often traded as Shi Hu were profiled and compared. The dominant signals were anosmine in Dendrobium nobile, shihunine in Dendrobium loddigesii, fructose isomers and malic acid in Dendrobium officinale, and a novel diglucoside in Flickingeria fimbriata, with water-soluble metabolite contents of roughly 0.10-0.38% by weight. The study is the direct chemical demonstration that these species are not interchangeable drugs.
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
Contraindications
Its use is prohibited in patients with deficiency- cold of the spleen and stomach, or yin undamaged in early stage of warm febrile disease, or dryness unformed in dampness prevalent disease.
Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 368–376.
Side Effects
- Lethal doses of dendrobine caused convulsions, apparently of central origin, before death.
Source: Zhu YP. Chinese Materia Medica: Chemistry, Pharmacology and Applications. Harwood Academic, 1998, p. 633.
Historical Texts
Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing
Han dynasty, c. 200 CEBen Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynasty, 1596References
- Li D-D, Zheng C-Q, Zhang F, Shi J-S. Potential neuroprotection by Dendrobium nobile Lindl alkaloid in Alzheimer's disease models . Neural Regeneration Research (2021) [DOI]
- Wang Y-H. Traditional uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, and toxicological effects of Dendrobium leaves: A review . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2021) [DOI]
- Tang X, Yuan Y, Zhang J. How Climate Change Will Alter the Distribution of Suitable Dendrobium Habitats . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2020) [DOI]
- Lu A-J, Jiang Y, Wu J, Tan D-P, Qin L, Lu Y-L, Qian Y, Bai C-J, Yang J-Y, Ling H, Shi J-S, Yang Z, He Y-Q. Opposite trends of glycosides and alkaloids in Dendrobium nobile of different age based on UPLC‐Q/TOF‐MS combined with multivariate statistical analyses . Phytochemical Analysis (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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