Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
- Menstrual & women's health
- Skin
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat, detoxifies, promotes diuresis, kills Intestinal parasites and stops bleeding
Traditional Chinese Uses
Tie Xian Cai (Herba Acalyphae) is the whole herb of Acalypha australis (Asian copperleaf), a bitter, neutral heat-clearing herb entering the Heart, Lung, Large and Small Intestine channels. It clears Heat and resolves toxicity, checks dysentery, promotes urination, and stops bleeding, and it kills intestinal parasites. Its best-known application is damp-heat dysentery and acute enteritis with diarrhea, where it is used alone or with other heat-clearing herbs.
It also treats various bleeding patterns - blood in the stool or urine, nosebleed, vomiting of blood, and uterine bleeding - as well as childhood malnutrition (gan). Fresh pounded herb is applied externally for sores, boils, eczema, snakebite, and traumatic bleeding. The usual decoction dose is about 10-30 g.
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Botanical Description
Acalypha australis is a slender, erect annual herb of the Euphorbiaceae, widespread as a weed of fields, roadsides, and disturbed open ground across East and Southeast Asia and parts of Australia. It grows 20–50 cm tall, with finely pubescent, longitudinally striate stems often tinged reddish below. Alternate, long-petioled leaves are ovate-lanceolate to rhombic-ovate, 3–9 cm long, coarsely serrate, with three to five basal veins. The plant is monoecious: small, apetalous green flowers are crowded into axillary spikes, the few female flowers seated at the base inside a conspicuous, leafy, fan-shaped, deeply toothed bract that enlarges in fruit and gives the plant its characteristic appearance. The schizocarpic capsule contains three small smooth seeds. The entire above-ground plant is gathered in summer or early autumn and dried for medicinal use.
Active Constituents
Corilagin
EllagitanninConcentration: reported as one of the major constituents of the aerial parts; not quantified as a percentage
Identified with bergaptol as one of the principal constituents behind the anti-inflammatory activity of the herb in a chronic colitis model. As a hydrolysable tannin it is also astringent and binds proteins and metal ions in the gut.
Bergaptol
FuranocoumarinConcentration: reported as a major constituent of the aerial parts; not quantified
A linear furanocoumarin (the 5-hydroxy analogue of psoralen) reported as one of the main anti-inflammatory constituents. Its presence is the reason this herb carries a theoretical furanocoumarin liability for CYP-mediated interactions and photosensitivity, neither of which has been tested in this species.
Emodin
AnthraquinoneConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
A hydroxyanthraquinone isolated from the aerial parts. Anthraquinones of this class are laxative and, in sustained high exposure, have been a focus of hepatic and genotoxicity concern, so its presence is worth recording even though the amount in the crude herb is unknown.
Gallic acid
Phenolic acidConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
A simple phenolic acid and a hydrolysis product of the herb's tannins, contributing antioxidant and astringent activity.
Brevifolin
Polyphenol (ellagitannin degradation product)Concentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
A polyphenol derived from ellagitannin breakdown, isolated from the aerial parts and used as a chemical marker of the drug.
Rutin
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
Quercetin-3-O-rutinoside, one of the flavonoids of the herb. It is poorly absorbed intact and acts largely after cleavage by gut bacteria to quercetin.
Loliolide
Norisoprenoid lactoneConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
An apocarotenoid lactone isolated from the aerial parts. It is widely distributed in plants and has no established pharmacology at the exposures a decoction would give.
2,6-Dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone
BenzoquinoneConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not quantified
A small redox-active benzoquinone isolated from the aerial parts. Quinones of this type are chemically reactive and can contribute to the oxidant load of a plant extract.
Beta-sitosterol and daucosterol
Phytosterol and its glucosideConcentration: isolated from the whole plant; not quantified
Ubiquitous plant sterols isolated from the whole plant. They are markers of the lipophilic fraction rather than drivers of the herb's traditional actions.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Oxidant drugs in G6PD deficiency (dapsone, primaquine, nitrofurantoin, rasburicase)
This is a genus-level flag, and the species distinction matters. Acalypha indica, a different species of the same genus used medicinally and as a pot-herb in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, is repeatedly documented to cause acute intravascular haemolysis and methaemoglobinaemia in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient people, with case series and case reports from Sri Lanka, Mayotte and Thailand. No such event has been reported for Acalypha australis, and no comparative assay of the oxidant constituents of the two species has been published. The mechanism proposed for A. indica is an oxidant constituent that overwhelms the reduced-glutathione defence of G6PD-deficient erythrocytes.
Clinical note: Do not treat this as an established hazard of Acalypha australis, but ask about G6PD deficiency and family history of favism before prescribing any Acalypha species, and confirm that the material supplied is A. australis and not A. indica. Sudden dark urine, jaundice or cyanosis after starting the herb warrants immediate cessation and a full blood count with methaemoglobin.
CYP3A4 substrates (e.g. midazolam, simvastatin, ciclosporin)
Bergaptol, a linear furanocoumarin, has been identified as one of the major constituents of the aerial parts of Acalypha australis. Linear furanocoumarins as a class are mechanism-based inhibitors of intestinal CYP3A4, the basis of the grapefruit juice effect. No inhibition study has been done with this herb or with an Acalypha australis extract, and the bergaptol content of the crude drug has not been measured, so this is an inference from chemistry alone.
Clinical note: Treat as a caution rather than a contraindication. If the patient takes a narrow-margin CYP3A4 substrate such as ciclosporin, tacrolimus or a statin, monitor for the usual signs of raised exposure during the first weeks of co-administration.
Photosensitising drugs (tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, amiodarone, thiazides)
Furanocoumarins are phototoxic on skin contact and, at sufficient systemic exposure, after ingestion. Bergaptol has been reported as a major constituent of this herb. Whether an oral decoction delivers a phototoxic dose is unknown; no phototoxicity study exists for Acalypha australis.
Clinical note: Mention sun protection if the herb is used topically as a poultice, which is a traditional route for this drug, and particularly if the patient is already on a photosensitising medicine.
Stimulant laxatives and anthraquinone herbs (senna, Da Huang, Fan Xie Ye)
Emodin, a laxative hydroxyanthraquinone, has been isolated from the aerial parts of this herb. Its concentration has not been reported, and the herb is traditionally used to stop rather than provoke diarrhoea, so the practical contribution is likely small. The theoretical concern is additive anthraquinone exposure when the herb is combined with a formula already containing rhubarb or senna.
Clinical note: No routine action needed. If loose stools worsen rather than settle on the herb, review the total anthraquinone load of the prescription.
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
2 verified · 2 unverified
Show 4 studies
- Proteomic analysis reveals that Acalypha australis L. mitigates chronic colitis by modulating the FABP4/PPARγ/NF-κB signaling pathway
- Anti-inflammatory effect of Acalypha australis L. via suppression of NF-κB signaling in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages and LPS-induced septic mice
- Tracing antibacterial compounds from Acalypha australis Linn. by spectrum-effect relationships and semi-preparative HPLC
- Acalypha australis L. induces autophagic cell death in colorectal cancer cells by increasing ROS through suppression of the AKT/mTOR/HIF-1 pathway
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
Proteomic analysis reveals that Acalypha australis L. mitigates chronic colitis by modulating the FABP4/PPARγ/NF-κB signaling pathway
In a mouse model of chronic colitis, extract of Acalypha australis reduced colonic inflammation, with proteomics implicating the FABP4, PPAR-gamma and NF-kappaB axis. Bergaptol and corilagin were identified as the major constituents likely responsible. Supports the traditional use for dysenteric disorders at the preclinical level only.
Anti-inflammatory effect of Acalypha australis L. via suppression of NF-κB signaling in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages and LPS-induced septic mice
Extract of the herb suppressed NF-kappaB signalling and inflammatory mediator release in LPS-stimulated macrophages and reduced markers of systemic inflammation in LPS-challenged mice. Consistent with the heat-clearing and detoxifying use, but the model is acute endotoxaemia rather than a clinical condition.
Tracing antibacterial compounds from Acalypha australis Linn. by spectrum-effect relationships and semi-preparative HPLC
Used spectrum-effect correlation with semi-preparative HPLC to link individual chromatographic peaks of the herb to antibacterial activity, isolating the fractions responsible. Provides a chemical basis for the traditional use in dysentery, at in vitro level.
Acalypha australis L. induces autophagic cell death in colorectal cancer cells by increasing ROS through suppression of the AKT/mTOR/HIF-1 pathway
Extract of the herb raised reactive oxygen species and triggered autophagic cell death in colorectal cancer cell lines through suppression of AKT/mTOR/HIF-1 signalling. Cell-line work only; no animal or human anticancer data exist for this species.
References
- Wang XL, Yu KB, Peng SL. [Chemical constituents of aerial part of Acalypha australis] . Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi (China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica) (2008)
- Kusala Maddumabandara, Arun Rajaratnam, Mohamed Ishfak, Nimali Samarakoon, Kithmini Ellepola, Sunil Bowattage. Acalypha indica induced acute oxidative haemolysis and methaemoglobinaemia: two case reports . Journal of Medical Case Reports (2024) [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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