Yin Chai Hu
StarStellaria dichotoma L. var. lanceolata Bge.
Traditionally used for
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
- Mood & calm
Cautions & contraindications
- Diabetes
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Deficiency Heat; Clears Childhood Nutritional Impairment Heat; Cools the Blood
Traditional Chinese Uses
Yin Chai Hu (银柴胡) is the root of Stellaria dichotoma L. var. lanceolata Bge. (Caryophyllaceae), Stellariae Radix. It is sweet and slightly cold, entering the Liver and Stomach channels. It clears deficiency Heat, clears the Heat of childhood nutritional impairment (疳积), and cools the Blood.
It is used for the low-grade afternoon or night fever of Yin deficiency, for steaming-bone fever with night sweats and a red tongue with little coating, and for the lingering fever left after a febrile illness has consumed the fluids. Its second, distinctive use is in children: the chronic fever, irritability, abdominal distension, sallow complexion and emaciation of childhood nutritional impairment, where it clears Heat without further damaging an already weak digestion.
Yin Chai Hu is not Chai Hu. Despite the shared name it is a different plant in a different family from Bupleurum chinense, and a different drug: Chai Hu is acrid and dispersing and vents Heat from the Shao Yang, while Yin Chai Hu is sweet and cooling and clears deficiency Heat from within. They are not interchangeable.
Western Herbalism Properties
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
Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata (lanceleaf stitchwort) is a tufted perennial herb in the Caryophyllaceae family, native to dry, sandy, grassland and steppe habitats of northern China, Mongolia, and Siberia, growing 15-30 cm tall. From a stout, twisted, longitudinal-furrowed, pale yellow to brownish taproot 15-40 cm long arise numerous slender, dichotomously branching, finely pubescent stems. The opposite leaves are linear-lanceolate, 1-2.5 cm long, sessile, with entire margins and prominent midrib, narrower than in the typical variety. The small white star-shaped flowers, 7-9 mm across, have five deeply two-cleft petals, five sepals, and ten stamens; they are borne singly on slender pedicels in dichotomously branched cymes. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule (POWO; Wikipedia).
Active Constituents
Dichotomine B
Beta-carboline alkaloidOne of the best-characterised alkaloids of the root, isolated from the aqueous ethanol extract together with dichotomines A, C and D. Compounds of this series showed antiallergic activity in vitro, inhibiting antigen-induced release from sensitised mast cells.
Dichotomides I to XIV and dichotomine E
Beta-carboline alkaloidsA large family of substituted beta-carbolines; a single 2010 study isolated 21 beta-carbolines from the root, 13 of them new. Five of these inhibited nitric oxide production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages with IC50 values of 11.3 to 19.3 micromolar, which is the best available in vitro correlate of the traditional heat-clearing action.
Glucodichotomine B
Beta-carboline alkaloid glucosideThe glucosylated form of dichotomine B, recovered from the root alongside stellarines A and C. Its presence means water decoction, the traditional preparation, extracts this class as glycosides.
Dichotomins A to E
Cyclic octapeptidesCyclic peptides isolated from the root by Morita and colleagues. Note the near-identical naming: the dichotomins are peptides, the dichotomines are beta-carboline alkaloids, and the two series are routinely confused in secondary sources.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Gypsophila oldhamiana root (Shan Yin Chai Hu / Si Shi Zhu) and Gypsophila paniculata root, substituted for Yin Chai Hu
Yin Chai Hu is one of the most routinely adulterated roots in the Chinese materia medica. Several unrelated Caryophyllaceae roots are sold collectively as Shan Yin Chai Hu, mountain Yin Chai Hu, with Gypsophila oldhamiana the commonest; Gypsophila paniculata is also used. Gypsophila roots are a saponin drug: monodesmosidic and bisdesmosidic gypsogenin- and quillaic-acid-type triterpene saponins have been isolated repeatedly from G. oldhamiana roots. Saponins of this class are surface-active, haemolytic and irritant to gastrointestinal mucosa, and are also strong alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. Authentic Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata root contains beta-carboline alkaloids and cyclic peptides, not saponins, so the substitution changes the drug's entire pharmacology rather than merely diluting it. The two are separable on macroscopic characters: Gypsophila root is flattened-cylindrical with the bark removed, showing brown-and-white striped patterns, and G. paniculata is cylindrical with a pale yellow surface.
Clinical note: Insist on authenticated Stellariae Radix and reject material with the striped, peeled Gypsophila appearance. Take the adulteration risk seriously in diabetic patients, since Gypsophila saponins have marked alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity and could add unpredicted glucose lowering.
Silene jenisseensis root, substituted for Yin Chai Hu
The root of Silene jenisseensis is documented in the Chinese literature as an established substitute for Yin Chai Hu, used for the same indications of yin-deficiency fever and childhood nutritional impairment fever. Silene roots are saponin-bearing rather than alkaloid-bearing, so none of the beta-carboline pharmacology described for authentic Stellariae Radix can be assumed to carry over. Other Silene species, including S. tatarinowii, circulate under the same trade name.
Clinical note: Record which botanical source was actually dispensed. Do not use published Stellaria dichotoma chemistry or dosing to justify a Silene substitute.
Bupleurum chinense / Bupleurum scorzonerifolium (Chai Hu), confused with Yin Chai Hu on the shared pinyin element
The two drugs were intermixed from the Tang through the Ming dynasties and were only formally separated in the Qing. They are not related botanically or chemically: Chai Hu is an Apiaceae root whose active principles are saikosaponins, used to harmonise shao yang and raise yang qi, while Yin Chai Hu is a Caryophyllaceae root used for deficiency heat and steaming bone fever. Saikosaponins carry their own hazard profile, including reports of hepatic injury with prolonged high-dose Bupleurum preparations, and Chai Hu is dispersing and outward-moving where Yin Chai Hu is not. The shared name is the mechanism of the error, not a shared pharmacology.
Clinical note: Write the full name and the Latin binomial on the prescription. Chai Hu and Yin Chai Hu are never interchangeable.
MAO inhibitors and serotonergic antidepressants
The characteristic alkaloids of this root are beta-carbolines, a class that includes well-known reversible MAO-A inhibitors such as harmine and harmaline. However, the Stellaria dichotoma beta-carbolines (the dichotomines, dichotomides and stellarines) are differently substituted and have not been tested for monoamine oxidase inhibition in any published study, and no case of a serotonergic reaction with this herb has been reported. This entry exists so the class relationship is on record, not because an interaction has been demonstrated.
Clinical note: No action needed at normal decoction doses. Do not present this as an established interaction to patients; it is a class-based flag only.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 3–10 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】3～10g。 【性味与归经】甘，微寒。归肝、胃经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Dui Yao — Herb Pairs
The classical two-herb combinations this herb appears in, each with an action neither herb has alone.
Both clear deficiency heat; together they relieve steaming bones and tidal fever more strongly than either alone.
Steaming bone fever and night sweats from yin deficiency.
Core pair of a classical formula — Qing Gu San, Zheng Zhi Zhun Sheng (Wang Kentang)
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
1 verified · 1 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
β-Carboline Alkaloids from Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata and Their Anti-inflammatory Activity
Twenty-one beta-carboline alkaloids were isolated from the roots, 13 of them new (dichotomides III to XIV and dichotomine E). Five were tested for inhibition of nitric oxide production in LPS-treated RAW 264.7 macrophages and all showed significant inhibition, with IC50 values of 11.3 to 19.3 micromolar. This is a cell-based assay on isolated compounds, not on a decoction, and no in vivo confirmation followed.
Structures of New b-Carboline-Type Alkaloids with Antiallergic Effects from Stellaria dichotoma
The aqueous ethanol extract of the root yielded the new beta-carboline alkaloids dichotomines A to D and dichotomides I and II, whose structures were determined here. Members of the series inhibited antigen-induced degranulation in a cell model, giving the first chemical basis for the herb's traditional use in heat patterns with an allergic-inflammatory character.
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
- Diabetes
Contraindications
Its use is prohibited in patients with externally contracted wind-cold and blood deficiency without fever.
Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 87–88.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi
Qing dynastyPharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China
Modern, 1963 editionReferences
- Hiroshi Morita, Koichi Takeya, Hideji Itokawa. Cyclic octapeptides from Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata . Phytochemistry (1997) [DOI]
- Peng Li, Pei Yu, Jin Xia. Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata Bunge, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant . Mitochondrial DNA Part B (2020) [DOI]
- Li-Zhen Ling. Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome and phylogenetic analysis of Silene jenisseensis (Caryophyllaceae) . Mitochondrial DNA Part B (2020) [DOI]
- Jian-Guang Luo, Li Ma, Ling-Yi Kong. New triterpenoid saponins with strong α-glucosidase inhibitory activity from the roots of Gypsophila oldhamiana . Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry (2008) [DOI]
- Jian-Guang Luo, Ling-Yi Kong, Yoshiaki Takaya, Masatake Niwa. Two New Monodesmosidic Triterpene Saponins from Gypsophila oldhamiana . Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (2006) [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 Yin Chai Hu.
No notes yet.