Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Urinary & fluids
- Heart & circulation
Cautions & contraindications
- Kidney conditions
- Allergy risk
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and induces diuresis (clears Damp-Heat); Opens the Orifices, expels wind and relieves coughing
Traditional Chinese Uses
Xiang Ri Kui Jing Sui is the dried pith from the stem of the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus. Sweet and neutral and entering the Bladder channel, it clears Heat and promotes urination, draining Damp-Heat from the lower burner. Its main traditional application is for painful, dribbling or difficult urination (lin syndrome) and urinary stones and gravel, where it is used to free the flow of urine and ease the passage of stones; it is also applied to edema. A secondary use opens the orifices and dispels Wind to relieve cough, including whooping cough.
It is a mild folk diuretic, generally decocted, and is regarded as low in toxicity. It functions as a minor, symptomatically focused remedy rather than a principal herb of the classical pharmacopoeia.
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is indigenous to North America and was extensively cultivated by Native American peoples for at least 4000 years; the Hopi, Dakota, Cherokee, and Zuni used various parts medicinally and ceremonially. The Dakota used the stem pith for chest pain and pulmonary trouble, while the Zuni and Hopi employed sunflower preparations for snakebite and as poultices (Moerman, 1998).
Relationships
Full-screen graph →Click a node for details · double-click to expand it · Ctrl/⌘ + scroll or two fingers to zoom and pan.
Botanical Description
Xiang Ri Gui Jing Sui is the dried pith from the stems of the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus L. (Asteraceae). The parent plant is a robust annual herb 1-3 m tall, with a coarse, erect, often unbranched stem 3-6 cm thick clothed in stiff hairs. The large alternate leaves are ovate to cordate, 10-30 cm long, with serrate margins and rough surfaces. The terminal solitary capitulum 10-40 cm across bears yellow ray florets surrounding a flat brown disc that ripens hundreds of achenes (sunflower seeds). After harvest, the soft, white, spongy pith is extracted from the dried stalk and used in Chinese folk medicine to promote urination, relieve dysuria, and treat urinary stones and edema. Native to the Americas, sunflower was introduced to China in the sixteenth century.
Active Constituents
Pectin (homogalacturonan with a minor rhamnogalacturonan-I fraction)
Pectic polysaccharideConcentration: the dominant polysaccharide of the pith; about 0.12-0.14 g of pectin is recoverable per gram of dry stalk pith under mild acid extraction
Water- and hot-water-extractable pectins are what actually dissolves when the pith is decocted. Two characterised fractions were 57.2 kDa and 23.1 kDa in weight-average molecular weight with degrees of esterification of 92 percent and 64 percent, dominated by 1,4-linked galacturonic acid residues. They are viscous, strongly water-holding and unabsorbed, which is the plausible basis for the bulk-and-fluid effects attributed to the drug rather than any small-molecule pharmacology.
Sunflower stalk-pith polysaccharide (HSPP)
Acidic polysaccharide fraction carrying bound long-chain fatty acidConcentration: the fraction isolated from pith decoctions in the only published pharmacological study of this drug
This is the fraction that was actually tested rather than an inferred active. In a syngeneic mouse lung-carcinoma metastasis model it lengthened mean survival and reduced metastasis, with the authors attributing the effect to reduced macrophage TNF-alpha release. Evidence is a single animal study; no human data exist.
Cellulose
Structural polysaccharide (beta-1,4-glucan)Concentration: the bulk of the dry mass; the pith is markedly lower in lignin and hemicellulose and higher in pectin than the woody rind of the same stalk
Pharmacologically inert. It matters only because it explains the drug's identity: the white spongy pith is chemically a different material from the rind, so a batch cut with stalk rind is not the same medicine even though it comes from the same stem.
Chlorogenic acid (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid) and related caffeoylquinic acids
Hydroxycinnamic acid esterReported as the dominant phenolic class across Helianthus annuus organs in review-level phytochemistry. Note the part: the quantitative work behind that statement covers leaves, receptacles, flowers, seeds and sprouts. No published quantitative phenolic analysis of the stem pith specifically was found, so no concentration is given here.
Sesquiterpene lactones
Sesquiterpene lactone (germacranolide and heliangolide types)Principal terpenoid metabolites of the genus and the compounds responsible for Asteraceae contact sensitisation. They are concentrated in glandular trichomes of leaves and flower heads; they have not been reported from the pith. They are listed here because they govern the allergy risk of any preparation contaminated with green aerial tissue.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Sunflower seed and other Helianthus annuus derived foods, in Asteraceae-sensitised patients
Sunflower seed allergy is documented and can be severe: in a 47-patient series, sensitisation was to 2S albumin storage proteins and non-specific lipid transfer proteins, IgE levels correlated with nsLTP IgE, and severity varied between exposures in the same patient. Refined sunflower oil is generally tolerated by seed-allergic patients. Whether stem pith shares the relevant proteins has not been tested, so this remains a precaution derived from the species rather than a demonstrated reaction to the pith.
Clinical note: Ask about sunflower seed and Asteraceae (ragweed, mugwort, chamomile, feverfew) allergy before prescribing. Patients with prior sunflower seed anaphylaxis should avoid the drug and should carry adrenaline regardless.
Cytotoxic chemotherapy and other conventional cancer treatment
Decoctions of the stalk pith are used in Chinese folk practice for advanced cancer, and the sole supporting study is a mouse lung-carcinoma metastasis model in which a polysaccharide fraction extended mean survival from 38.7 to 47.3 days. There is no human efficacy evidence and no pharmacokinetic work, so no interaction with cytotoxics can be predicted in either direction.
Clinical note: Do not present this drug to a patient as cancer treatment. If a patient is already taking it, record it, and do not let it substitute for or delay oncological care.
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
Show 2 studies
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
Polysaccharide of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) stalk pith inhibits cancer proliferation and metastases via TNF-α pathway
A polysaccharide fraction (HSPP) from sunflower stalk pith, the fraction that dominates the traditional decoction, was tested in a syngeneic mouse model of lung carcinoma metastasis. Mean survival was 47.3 plus or minus 12.8 days for the whole polysaccharide and 50.7 plus or minus 13.0 days for the HSPP-4 sub-fraction, against 38.7 plus or minus 12.7 days for control and 41.8 plus or minus 13.4 days for positive control (n = 20 per group, P < 0.01). Metastasis was reduced, and the authors postulate reduced macrophage TNF-alpha release as the mechanism. This is the only pharmacological study located on this specific drug, and it is an animal study.
A Comparative Investigation on Structural and Chemical Differences between the Pith and Rind of Sunflower Stalk and Their Influences on Nanofibrillation Efficiency
Direct chemical comparison of pith and rind from the same sunflower stalks. The pith had much lower lignin and hemicellulose, higher pectin, a looser cell structure and higher cell wall porosity than the rind. This is the analytical basis for treating pith and stalk as different materials, which matters because the drug is specified as the pith and this batch record carries the stem (caulis) Latin name.
References
- Xu M, Qi M, Goff HD, Cui SW. Polysaccharides from sunflower stalk pith: Chemical, structural and functional characterization . Food Hydrocolloids (2020) [DOI]
- Corlatti AM, Bach H, Agudelo IJ, Elso OG, Ricco R, Laurella LC, Sülsen VP. Phytochemical Insights and Biological Potential of the Helianthus Genus . Plants (2026) [DOI]
- dos Santos Barreto M, Lisboa de Jesus W, de Britto Sá ME, Bispo de Souza J, Santana Santos R, Santana Lisboa J, Macedo Moura PH, Rego Rodrigues Silva DM, Dias Silva EE, Pinto Borges L, Gibara Guimarães A. Therapeutic Activities and Phytochemical Composition of Helianthus annuus L. Extracts . Chemistry & Biodiversity (2026) [DOI]
- Galleani C, Diéguez M, Cabanillas B, Martín-Arriscado Arroba C, Enríquez-Matas A, Crespo J. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Seed Allergy . Journal of Investigational Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2025) [DOI]
- An J. Anaphylaxis to Sunflower Seed with Tolerance to Sunflower Oil: A Case Report . Medicina (2021) [DOI]
- Ključevšek T, Kreft S. Allergic Potential of Medicinal Plants From the Asteraceae Family . Health Science Reports (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.
📝 Notes
Public notes from the community and your own private notes on Xiang Ri Gui Jing Sui.
No notes yet.