Thermopsis lanceolata
StarThermopsis lanceolata
Synonyms: Thermopsis fabacea, Thermopsis orientalis, Thermia lupinoides, Thermopsis sibirica, Sophora fabacea, Podalyria lupinoides, Thermopsis lupinoides, Thermopsis lanceolata subsp. sibirica, Thermopsis glabra, Thermia fabacea, Thermopsis lanceolata var. glabra, Baptisia lupinoides, Sophora lupinoides, Thermopsis lanceolata subsp. glabra
Safety at a glance
No rule in our tables for this herb: pregnancy, breastfeeding, incompatible pairs (十八反 / 十九畏), herb–drug, dose ceiling. This is not a safety clearance.
Not graded — No toxicity grade is recorded. Most herbs in the catalogue carry none.
Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
Western Herbalism Properties
Gallery
Botanical Description
Thermopsis lanceolata, the lanceleaf golden-banner or false lupine, is a rhizomatous perennial herb of the pea family (Fabaceae) native to the steppes, sandy grassland and floodplains of Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia and northern China. It spreads by creeping rhizomes to form colonies of erect, finely hairy stems 15 to 40 centimetres tall. The leaves are alternate and palmately trifoliate, each with three narrowly oblong to lance-shaped greyish-green leaflets subtended by a pair of conspicuous leafy stipules. Bright yellow pea-like flowers are borne in a terminal raceme, opening in early summer. The fruit is a flattened, straight or slightly curved, hairy legume pod containing several seeds. Like many members of the tribe Thermopsideae the whole plant is rich in quinolizidine alkaloids and is toxic if eaten in quantity; it is unpalatable to grazing stock.
Active Constituents
Cytisine
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: Principal alkaloid of the seed, the richest plant part and a former industrial cytisine source; a lesser component of the aerial herb that is the medicinal drug
A high-affinity partial agonist at the α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor; the same molecule is the smoking-cessation drug cytisinicline. Isolated cytisine (Chinese ye dian jian, Soviet Cytiton) was given by injection as a respiratory analeptic for respiratory failure and neonatal asphyxia, which is the same nicotinic action that makes overdose of the crude seed dangerous.
Thermopsine
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: One of the dominant alkaloids of the dried aerial herb; the whole herb carries 0.5 to 3 percent total alkaloids, the seed considerably more
The genus-defining alkaloid and the scaffold of the thermlanseedlines isolated from the seed. It contributes to the reflex emetic and expectorant action of the herb and is the marker against which pharmacopoeial alkaloid assays of the drug are calculated.
Anagyrine
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: An isomer of thermopsine, reported among the major herb alkaloids
Established as the teratogen responsible for crooked calf disease when pregnant cattle graze anagyrine-containing lupines. Its presence is the main reason the herb should be treated as contraindicated in pregnancy rather than merely cautioned.
N-Methylcytisine
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: Consistently reported minor alkaloid of both herb and seed
A nicotinic receptor ligand of lower potency than cytisine that adds to the total nicotinic burden of a crude preparation.
Pachycarpine (d-sparteine)
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: Minor alkaloid of the herb
Sparteine is a cardiac sodium-channel blocker with class Ia antiarrhythmic behaviour and a uterotonic that was used as an oxytocic in Soviet obstetrics. It is also the classical probe substrate of CYP2D6, so its clearance varies several-fold between individuals.
Homothermopsine
Quinolizidine alkaloidConcentration: Minor alkaloid of the herb
A structural congener of thermopsine with no separately characterised pharmacology; reported consistently in alkaloid surveys of the drug.
Isoflavones and pterocarpans
IsoflavonoidConcentration: Thirteen isoflavones and two pterocarpans isolated from the aerial herb; a further eight new isoflavone derivatives from the seed
The non-alkaloid fraction of the plant. These are the compounds behind the antifungal activity found in seed extracts and are not implicated in the herb's toxicity.
Lignans
LignanConcentration: Twenty lignans isolated from the aerial herb in a 2025 systematic phytochemical survey
A previously unrecognised major class in this species. Two of the isolated lignans and sesquiterpenes acted as plant growth regulators in a wheat germination assay; none has been studied for human pharmacology.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Varenicline, cytisinicline and nicotine replacement therapy
Cytisine, the principal seed alkaloid of this species, is itself the licensed smoking-cessation agent cytisinicline, a partial agonist that displaces essentially all radioligand from the α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor at 10 µM. Varenicline was designed from cytisine and acts at the same site. Taking the crude drug alongside any of these delivers an uncontrolled additional dose of the same pharmacology, and because partial agonists both stimulate and block, the result can be either exaggerated nicotinic effects or loss of the intended therapeutic effect.
Clinical note: Do not combine Thermopsis preparations with varenicline, cytisinicline or nicotine replacement. Note also that no clinical trial of Thermopsis lanceolata itself has ever been published, so the herb has none of the dosing certainty the purified drug has.
Quinidine, paroxetine, fluoxetine and bupropion
Pachycarpine, a minor herb alkaloid, is d-sparteine, the historical probe substrate for CYP2D6. Strong CYP2D6 inhibitors, and the roughly 7 percent of Europeans who are genetic poor metabolisers, clear sparteine far more slowly, and sparteine accumulation produces the diplopia, dizziness and cardiac conduction slowing described in the sparteine oxidation polymorphism literature. This is an inference from the alkaloid's known handling, not from any study of the herb.
Clinical note: Treat as a reason not to give this herb to patients on strong CYP2D6 inhibitors or with class I antiarrhythmics on board, rather than as a quantified interaction.
Oxytocin and other uterotonics
Two separate hazards converge in pregnancy. Pachycarpine is sparteine, which was deliberately used as a labour stimulant in the Soviet Union and would add to any administered uterotonic. Independently, anagyrine is the alkaloid proven to cause skeletal malformation in calves whose dams grazed anagyrine-rich lupines, so first-trimester exposure carries a structural teratogenic concern that is not dose-defined in humans.
Clinical note: Contraindicated in pregnancy at any stage. Do not use as a labour aid despite the historical sparteine precedent.
Cassia obtusifolia seed (Jue Ming Zi)
This species carries the Chinese alias ye jue ming, literally wild jue ming, alongside mu ma dou and ku dou. Jue Ming Zi, the seed of Cassia obtusifolia, is a common and essentially benign laxative and eye herb dispensed at 9 to 15 g. Thermopsis seed is the most alkaloid-rich part of a drug the Chinese materia medica marks you du, toxic, and as few as six Thermopsis seeds produced vomiting and headache in the reported human cases. A dispensing error in either direction would therefore be serious. This is a nomenclatural hazard established from the shared alias; no published series of actual substitutions was found.
Clinical note: Never accept ye jue ming as a synonym for Jue Ming Zi. Confirm the botanical source on the certificate of analysis before dispensing either.
Sophora alopecuroides seed (Ku Dou Zi)
Thermopsis lanceolata is also recorded under the aliases ku dou and huang hua ku dou zi, which overlap with Ku Dou Zi, the seed of Sophora alopecuroides. Both are quinolizidine-alkaloid legume drugs, so co-prescription or confusion between them stacks alkaloids acting on the same nicotinic and cardiac targets.
Clinical note: Check which drug a prescription written as ku dou is asking for, and avoid combining the two.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Thermopsis lanceolata. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
3 studies on recordRecorded 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
1
1 verified · 0 unverified
Show the study
In vitro / animal
2
0 verified · 2 unverified
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
Five cases of Thermopsis poisoning
The only human data on the genus. Five poison-centre cases following ingestion of Thermopsis seeds or flowers produced nausea, vomiting and headache lasting several hours; as few as six seeds were symptomatic. The plants were Rocky Mountain Thermopsis species, not Thermopsis lanceolata, so the report bounds the genus rather than this drug. The authors stress that the common names callers used could easily have led to misidentification and that professional botanical identification was needed in every case, which is directly relevant to a drug whose Chinese aliases collide with a benign herb.
Thermopsis montana-induced myopathy in calves
Natural and experimental Thermopsis poisoning in calves caused a degenerative skeletal myopathy. The species was Thermopsis montana, a North American congener, and the finding is reported here because it identifies a target organ, skeletal muscle, that the acute nicotinic picture would not predict. It is not evidence about Thermopsis lanceolata, whose alkaloid profile overlaps but is not identical.
Thermlanseedlines A-G, seven thermopsine-based alkaloids with antiviral and insecticidal activities from the seeds of Thermopsis lanceolata R. Br.
Seven new thermopsine-based alkaloids were isolated from the seeds of this species and tested against tobacco mosaic virus and insect larvae. The activities reported are agricultural, not therapeutic, and there is no cell-based or animal model of any human disease here. It is included because it is one of the few studies whose material is unambiguously Thermopsis lanceolata.
Historical Texts
Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian (Dictionary of Chinese Materia Medica)
Modern compilation, 1977Zhonghua Ben Cao (Chinese Materia Medica)
Modern compilation, 1999State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation, monograph Thermopsidis lanceolatae herba
14th edition, 2018References
- Vinogradova VI, Iskandarov S, Yunusov SYu. An investigation of the alkaloids of Thermopsis lanceolata . Chemistry of Natural Compounds (1971) [DOI]
- Shakirov TT, Sabirov KA. The production of cytisine from the seeds of Thermopsis lanceolata . Chemistry of Natural Compounds (1970) [DOI]
- Wu XY, Tan JG, Liu CF, He WW, Tian CY, An Q, Yi P, Yuan CM, Hao XJ, Hu ZX. Chemical constituents of the herb of Thermopsis lanceolata R. Br. and their stimulation of seed germination of Triticum aestivum L . Phytochemistry (2025) [DOI]
- Liu CF, Tan JG, Wu XY, Tian CY, An Q, Yi P, Hao XJ, Hu ZX. Isoflavones and Stilbenes With Antifungal Activities From the Seeds of Thermopsis lanceolata R. Br . Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2025) [DOI]
- Zhang P, Zou JB, An Q, Yi P, Yuan CM, Huang LJ, Gu W, Hu ZX, Hao XJ. Two new cytisine-type alkaloids from the seeds of Thermopsis lanceolata . Journal of Asian Natural Products Research (2022) [DOI]
- Cely-Veloza W, Kato MJ, Coy-Barrera E. Quinolizidine-Type Alkaloids: Chemodiversity, Occurrence, and Bioactivity . ACS Omega (2023) [DOI]
- Rubinstein ML, Jacobs C. Receptor selectivity of cytisinicline: minimal 5-HT3 binding may explain lower incidence of nausea in smoking cessation therapy . Nicotine and Tobacco Research (2026) [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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