Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Bowel health
- Menstrual & women's health
- Skin
Cautions & contraindications
- Kidney conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Cools the Blood, stops bleeding, removes toxicity, invigorates the Blood and astringes wounds
Traditional Chinese Uses
Wa Song is the whole succulent herb of Orostachys fimbriata (Crassulaceae), a small stonecrop that colonises old tiled roofs. Sour and bitter with a neutral (traditionally cool) nature, it cools the Blood and stops bleeding, resolves toxicity, and astringes to close wounds, entering the Liver, Lung and Spleen channels. Classic indications are Blood-Heat bleeding — bloody dysentery, bleeding hemorrhoids, blood in the stool and uterine bleeding — and chronic non-healing sores and ulcers, for which the fresh herb is crushed and applied topically. It is also used for damp-heat and liver-heat complaints.
It is decocted or expressed for juice, with larger amounts used externally on the skin.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Wa Song is Orostachys fimbriata, a small biennial succulent of the stonecrop family Crassulaceae often colonising the tiles of old roofs and giving rise to its English name 'rooftop pine' or 'dunce cap'. In its first year the plant forms a dense, ground-hugging rosette of fleshy, glaucous, lance-shaped to spathulate leaves with finely fringed cartilaginous tips. In its second year the rosette elongates into a conspicuous tapering spike 10 to 30 centimetres tall, densely clothed in narrower leaves and terminating in a slender, conical or pagoda-shaped raceme of small, five-petalled, whitish to pinkish flowers; the plant flowers once, sets seed, and dies. The species favours dry, exposed sites: rock crevices, sandy slopes, walls, and roof tiles across northern and central China, Korea, and Japan.
Active Constituents
Epicatechin gallate
Flavan-3-ol gallate esterConcentration: roughly 22% of the total flavonoids of an ethanolic extract of the dried aerial part (LC-MS profiling)
The single most abundant flavonoid identified in Orostachys fimbriata extracts. It is a strong radical scavenger and accounts for much of the antioxidant capacity measured for this herb; no human pharmacokinetic or efficacy data exist for it as delivered from this plant.
Quercetin
Flavonol aglyconeConcentration: roughly 7% of the total flavonoids of an ethanolic extract
Contributes antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity to the extract. Quercetin and its 3-O-glucoside are the flavonols repeatedly reported from Wa Song in the Chinese materia medica literature.
Kaempferol
Flavonol aglyconeConcentration: roughly 3% of the total flavonoids of an ethanolic extract
Present both free and as glycosides (kaempferol-7-rhamnoside, kaempferol-3-glucoside-7-rhamnoside are listed for this species in Chinese materia medica sources). Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant in vitro.
Total flavonoids
Mixed flavonoid fractionConcentration: about 160 mg per g of extract, i.e. more than half of the total polyphenol content of the extract
The flavonoid fraction, rather than any single marker, is what the modern literature credits with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions attributed to Wa Song.
OFP (Orostachys fimbriata polysaccharide)
Homogeneous glucan (polysaccharide)Concentration: purified fraction of about 6.2 kDa; composed only of glucose, with a 1,4-linked alpha-glucopyranosyl main chain
Suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide, IL-1beta and IL-6 release from RAW264.7 macrophages in a concentration-dependent way and roughly halved xylene-induced ear swelling in mice. This is the best-characterised single constituent of the species and is notably smaller than the 30-50 kDa polysaccharide of the related Orostachys japonicus.
Oxalic acid
Dicarboxylic organic acidConcentration: not quantified in peer-reviewed sources; Chinese accounts note the plant is used industrially as a raw material for oxalic acid extraction, and the drug's sour taste is attributed to it
Accounts for the sour taste recorded for Wa Song and is the most plausible basis for the toxicity that Chinese materia medica assigns to the herb. Oxalate precipitates calcium in the renal tubule, so an unquantified oxalate load is a real consideration for prolonged or high-dose internal use.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Orostachys japonicus (Korean Wa-song) supplied or cited in place of Orostachys fimbriata
The pinyin Wa Song is the Chinese Pharmacopoeia drug from the aerial parts of Orostachys fimbriata, but the identical Korean name Wa-song refers to Orostachys japonicus, and almost the entire modern pharmacology literature - the antiproliferative, anti-angiogenic and antimetastatic work, the acetaminophen hepatoprotection work, the macrophage immunostimulation work and the only published acute oral toxicity study - was done on O. japonicus. The two are separate accepted species in Plants of the World Online. Even the best-studied constituents differ: the O. fimbriata polysaccharide is a 6.2 kDa glucan whereas the O. japonicus polysaccharide is reported at 30-50 kDa.
Clinical note: Read any Wa Song claim against the binomial in the source paper. Do not transfer O. japonicus anticancer or hepatoprotective data to the O. fimbriata drug you are dispensing.
Calcium supplements, and use in calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis or chronic kidney disease
Wa Song is a Crassulaceae succulent whose sour taste is attributed to oxalic acid, and Chinese sources record it as a commercial source for oxalic acid extraction. Zhong Hua Ben Cao classifies the herb as toxic (you du) and cites animal work showing lethality at high dose. No clinical oxalate-loading study exists for this herb, so this is inference from the chemistry rather than a documented event.
Clinical note: Keep to the classical internal dose of about 5-15 g decocted, avoid prolonged courses, and avoid internal use altogether in stone formers or impaired renal function. External use (mashed fresh herb, or a wash) carries none of this concern.
Warm, tonifying or digestive prescriptions in Spleen and Stomach deficiency-cold
Wa Song is cool, sour and bitter, and the classical caution recorded for it (via Quanzhou Ben Cao and repeated in Zhong Hua Ben Cao) is that patients with Spleen and Stomach deficiency-cold should not take it. This is a pattern-level contraindication, not a pharmacokinetic interaction.
Clinical note: In a deficiency-cold presentation, either omit Wa Song or protect the middle with warming, harmonising herbs; watch for new loose stool after adding it.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction, or powder/pills | 3–9 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 monograph 【瓦松】【用法与用量】3～9g。外用适量，研末涂敷患处。 【性味与归经】酸、苦，凉。归肝、肺、脾经。 — Matched to ChP by romanised drug name (pinyin 'Wa Song' → 瓦松); the romanisation is unique across all 649 ChP monographs, and the match was cross-checked against this record's own TCM temperature. Quoted verbatim. |
Evidence Tier
Limited evidence · 2 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
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
Purification, Structural Characterization, and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of a Novel Polysaccharide Isolated from Orostachys fimbriata
A homogeneous glucan of about 6.2 kDa (OFP) was purified from Orostachys fimbriata and its linkage pattern determined. In RAW264.7 macrophages OFP concentration-dependently inhibited LPS-driven nitric oxide, IL-1beta and IL-6 production, and in mice it reduced xylene-induced ear swelling by close to 50% at every dose tested. This is the clearest experimental support for the traditional anti-inflammatory and sore-healing use of the drug, and it is on the correct species.
Identification and Characterization of Major Flavonoids in Extracts from an Unexplored Medicinal Herb Orostachys fimbriata
Solvent extracts of Orostachys fimbriata were profiled by LC-MS. Flavonoids made up more than half the total polyphenol content (about 160 mg per g extract), with epicatechin gallate, quercetin and kaempferol accounting for roughly 22%, 7% and 3% of the total flavonoids respectively. The authors describe the species as essentially unexplored chemically, which is a fair statement of how thin the O. fimbriata evidence base is compared with O. japonicus.
Historical Texts
Xin Xiu Ben Cao (Tang Ben Cao)
Tang dynastyBen Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynastyZhong Hua Ben Cao
Modern (1999)References
- Seon-Hee Kim, Deok-Seon Ryu, Hyeong-Seon Lee, Hye-Ryoung Shin, Ji-Hye Kwon, Dong-Seok Lee. Acute oral toxicity of the ethyl acetate fraction of Orostachys japonicus in mice . Pharmaceutical Biology (2014) [DOI]
- Datong Hu, Fan Su, Gan Yang, Jing Wang, Yingying Zhang. Purification, Structural Characterization, and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of a Novel Polysaccharide Isolated from Orostachys fimbriata . Molecules (2021) [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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