Vicia amoena
StarVicia amoena
Synonyms: Vicia rapunculus, Vicia amoena var. angustifolia, Ervum amoenum, Vicia amoena f. albiflora, Vicia hedysaroides, Orobus acutangulus, Vicia amoena var. pubescens, Vicia jeniseensis, Vicia amoena var. sericea, Orobus mutabilis, Vicia amoena var. macrophylla, Vicia amoena var. angusta, Vicia amoena f. oblongifolia, Vicia amoena subsp. sericea
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
- Pain & joints
Western Herbalism Properties
Botanical Description
Vicia amoena, the broadleaf or beautiful vetch, is a perennial climbing or scrambling herb of the pea family (Fabaceae) native to temperate eastern Asia, including northern and north-eastern China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan and eastern Russia, where it grows in grasslands, meadows, scrub, forest margins and along roadsides. It spreads from a creeping rhizome, producing slender, angled, climbing stems up to about 1 m or more long. The leaves are pinnately compound with several pairs of elliptic to oblong leaflets and terminate in a branched tendril used for climbing. From early summer the plant bears showy, one-sided racemes of numerous purple to blue-violet pea flowers. The fruit is a flattened, oblong legume pod that splits to release several seeds. It is a valued forage and pasture legume across its range.
Active Constituents
Kaempferitrin (kaempferol-3,7-di-O-α-L-rhamnoside)
Flavonol diglycosideConcentration: 0.762 mg/g mean in dried stems and leaves, the most abundant of five glycosides quantified by HPLC
The dominant flavonoid of the drug. Kaempferitrin isolated from other plants prolongs plasma recalcification time and inhibits coagulation and platelet aggregation in the ferric-chloride rat arterial thrombosis model, with less bleeding than aspirin. That work was done on material from Celastrus orbiculatus, not from this plant, and at a content of 0.76 mg/g a 15 g decoction supplies only about 11 mg.
Quercitrin (quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 0.600 mg/g mean in dried stems and leaves
The second most abundant quantified glycoside and part of the antioxidant fraction that accounts for the radical-scavenging activity measured in aerial-part extracts.
Kaempferol-3-O-α-L-arabinoside
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 0.192 mg/g mean in dried stems and leaves
One of the five marker glycosides used to distinguish Vicia amoena from the narrow-leaved variety angusta in quality-control work, since the two are sold interchangeably as northern Tou Gu Cao.
Hyperoside (quercetin-3-O-β-D-galactoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 0.166 mg/g mean in dried stems and leaves
A widely distributed flavonol galactoside, here present at a low level. It is the constituent most often chosen as the assay marker for this drug because reference material is readily available, not because it is the most abundant.
Isoquercitrin (quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside)
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: 0.080 mg/g mean in dried stems and leaves, the least abundant of the five quantified
A minor glycoside of the antioxidant fraction, present at roughly a tenth of the kaempferitrin content.
Amoenin (A3), kaempferol-3-O-β-D-mannoside
Flavonol glycosideConcentration: Isolated as a new compound from this species in 1997; not quantified
Named for the species and, as a kaempferol mannoside, an unusual sugar attachment among flavonol glycosides. It is chiefly useful as a chemotaxonomic marker for confirming that material sold as Tou Gu Cao is in fact this legume; no pharmacology has been reported for it in isolation.
Tricin
FlavoneConcentration: Reported among the principal components carried into pharmacological work on the herb
A methylated flavone common in grasses and legumes. It was one of five components taken forward as the presumed actives in network-pharmacology modelling of the herb, on the basis of abundance rather than any measured activity of the pure compound in this plant.
Quercetin and kaempferol
Flavonol aglyconesConcentration: Both isolated free from the herb in addition to their glycosides
The aglycone cores released on hydrolysis of the glycoside fraction, and also present free. They carry the general antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity attributed to the drug and are the compounds most often invoked to explain its traditional use against Wind-Damp joint pain.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Speranskia tuberculata, Impatiens balsamina, Clematis and Incarvillea species dispensed as Tou Gu Cao
Tou Gu Cao is the clearest case of tong ming yi wu, one name and several unrelated substances, in the Chinese materia medica. At least five families are dispensed under it: Vicia amoena and its congeners as the northern or northeastern Tou Gu Cao, Speranskia tuberculata (Euphorbiaceae) as zhen zhu tou gu cao in north-central China, the stem of Impatiens balsamina (Balsaminaceae) as feng xian tou gu cao, and Clematis and Incarvillea species regionally. These share no chemistry. A legume supplying flavonol glycosides is not interchangeable with a Euphorbiaceae herb supplying speranculatine alkaloids, still less with a Ranunculaceae Clematis carrying ranunculin and its vesicant breakdown product protoanemonin. The confusion reaches the primary literature: a 2026 pharmacology paper on Vicia amoena ran its toxicity prediction on speranculatines A and B, which are constituents of Speranskia tuberculata and not of any Vicia.
Clinical note: Never accept Tou Gu Cao on the pinyin name alone. Require the binomial on the certificate of analysis and confirm it matches the intended source, particularly when substituting between a northern and a southern supplier.
Warfarin, aspirin and other antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs
Kaempferitrin, the most abundant flavonoid of this herb, inhibits coagulation and platelet aggregation and prolongs recalcification time in rat and rabbit models. The measured content is 0.762 mg/g, so a 9 to 15 g decoction delivers roughly 7 to 11 mg of kaempferitrin before absorption losses. That is far below the doses used in the animal work, and the antithrombotic study used kaempferitrin from a different plant. The interaction is stated because the herb is given for painful joints, a setting where patients are commonly already anticoagulated, not because a signal has been observed.
Clinical note: No monitoring change is warranted on this evidence alone. Ask about bleeding if the herb is used long term alongside full anticoagulation.
Dosage Calculator
⚖ Dosage Calculator
A weight-based mathematical estimate for Vicia amoena. Not a prescription.
Evidence Tier
2 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
0
In vitro / animal
2
0 verified · 2 unverified
Show 2 studies
- Antitumor Effects of Broadleaf Vetch Against Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Through Dual Mechanisms: Suppressing EMT and Inducing Ferroptosis with Predicted Hepatorenal Toxicity-An Integrative Network Pharmacology and Toxicology Study
- Antioxidant and Anti-wrinkling Activities of Water and Ethanol Extracts from the Aerial Parts of Vicia amoena
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
Antitumor Effects of Broadleaf Vetch Against Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Through Dual Mechanisms: Suppressing EMT and Inducing Ferroptosis with Predicted Hepatorenal Toxicity-An Integrative Network Pharmacology and Toxicology Study
A methanol extract of the herb inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion of the oesophageal squamous carcinoma lines KYSE150 and TE-1, reversed epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers, and induced ferroptosis with iron and malondialdehyde accumulation, glutathione depletion and lower GPX4 and SLC7A11; ferrostatin-1 reversed most of it. In a xenograft, 1 g/kg intraperitoneally for 21 days reduced tumour volume and weight, and liver and kidney histology showed no appreciable change. Two cautions matter for a practitioner. Extract concentrations were expressed in micromolar units (4, 8 and 12 µM) for a crude multi-component extract, which is not a meaningful measure of what a decoction delivers, and the paper's in-silico hepatorenal toxicity screen was run on speranculatines A and B, alkaloids of Speranskia tuberculata rather than of Vicia amoena, so that toxicity prediction does not describe this species. There is no human evidence of any kind, and nothing here supports an oncological use.
Antioxidant and Anti-wrinkling Activities of Water and Ethanol Extracts from the Aerial Parts of Vicia amoena
Water and ethanol extracts of the aerial parts, the part used medicinally, were screened for radical scavenging and for activity in cell-free anti-wrinkling assays. This is a cosmetic-science screen with no disease model and no dosing information transferable to internal use; it is recorded only because it is one of very few published experiments performed on correctly identified Vicia amoena material.
Historical Texts
Menggu Yaowu Zhengdian (Mongolian Materia Medica Canon), by Jambaldorji
Qing dynasty, written in Tibetan after 1821Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi (Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica), by Zhao Xuemin
Qing dynasty, 1765Chinese Pharmacopoeia, 2015 edition, Part IV
Modern pharmacopoeial standard, 2015References
- Wei F, Yan WM. [Studies on the chemical constitutens of Vicia amoena Fisch] . Yao Xue Xue Bao (Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica) 32(9) (1997)
- Sang YL, Guo FY, Wang Y, Hao YJ, San YD, Zhu SF. HPLC法测定山野豌豆与狭山野豌豆茎叶中5个黄酮苷的含量 . Chinese Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis 37(6):950-955 (2017)
- Xing Y, Chen S, Hu K, Cui Z, Shao Y, Zhu J, Chen Z, Chen J, Deng W, Ding C, Zhao J. Antitumor Effects of Broadleaf Vetch Against Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Through Dual Mechanisms: Suppressing EMT and Inducing Ferroptosis with Predicted Hepatorenal Toxicity-An Integrative Network Pharmacology and Toxicology Study . Cancers (2026) [DOI]
- Zhou J, Wang R, Hou J, Qi Y, Liu Y, Niu L, Xia X, Shao J, Liu Y, Liu C, Li H. Investigation of Antithrombotic Activity and In Vivo Effective Forms of Kaempferitrin Using FeCl3-Induced Rat Arterial Thrombosis and UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS . Molecules (2025) [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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