Ying Pi
StarCerasus serrulata (Lindl.) G. Don ex London
Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Bowel health
- Urinary & fluids
Cautions & contraindications
- Young children
- Toxic — professional use only
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and Resolves Toxicity; Descends Lung Qi and Stops Cough; Expels Pus; Resolves Phlegm
Traditional Chinese Uses
Ying Pi (cherry tree bark) is an astringent herb used in Chinese medicine primarily to settle cough and wheeze from Lung deficiency. It also has antiparasitic applications for roundworm infestations, and its astringent property addresses diarrhea and urinary incontinence from deficiency patterns. As a bark medicine with converging and consolidating action, it brings Lung Qi downward and helps prevent the abnormal upward and outward leakage of Lung function.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Prunus serrulata (syn. Cerasus serrulata), the Japanese flowering cherry, is a small deciduous tree of the family Rosaceae, native to Japan, Korea, China and the Russian Far East, typically reaching 8-12 m in height with a spreading crown and smooth, lustrous chestnut-brown bark marked by prominent horizontal lenticels. The alternate, ovate to obovate leaves are 5-13 cm long with doubly serrate margins, glabrous, and emerge bronze-red before maturing to dark green. Five-petalled white or pale pink flowers, 2.5-4 cm across, appear in short umbellate clusters in early spring before or with the leaves, and are followed by small black drupes 8-10 mm in diameter. The smooth bark, harvested in spring, is the part used medicinally and has a slightly bitter, faintly aromatic taste.
Active Constituents
Sakuranin (sakuranetin 5-O-glucoside)
Flavanone glycosideTogether with neosakuranin, sakuranin is the major constituent of the water extract of Pruni Cortex, the cherry-bark drug. Chinese sources give it the name ying pi gan, cherry-bark glycoside. Caution on identity: the analytical work establishing this was done on the bark of Prunus jamasakura, the Japanese Pharmacopoeia source, not on Cerasus serrulata itself.
Neosakuranin
Flavanone glycosideThe second major water-extractable flavanone glycoside of Pruni Cortex, isolated alongside sakuranin, four lignans and six aromatic compounds. Because both major constituents are glycosides, they are efficiently carried into a water decoction.
Sakuranetin
Flavanone (aglycone)The aglycone released from sakuranin, first characterised from cherry bark and named for it. It downregulates inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in hepatocytes by acting on the interleukin-1 receptor and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta, which is a concrete anti-inflammatory mechanism for the drug's heat-clearing and pus-expelling uses. It also has reported antimicrobial and antiallergic activity.
Genkwanin, naringenin, genistein and arctigenin
Flavones, flavanones, isoflavone and lignanReported as the distinguishing constituents of Pruni Cortex alongside sakuranetin. Genistein and the flavanones of this drug bind estrogen receptor beta in vitro, which is the basis of the hormonal caution below.
Prunasin and amygdalin
Cyanogenic glycosidesCyanogenic glucosides are distributed through the bark, twigs, leaves and kernels of Prunus and Cerasus species, prunasin predominating in bark and foliage and amygdalin in kernels. On maceration or ingestion, endogenous beta-glucosidase hydrolyses them to mandelonitrile and then to hydrogen cyanide. No quantitative assay of cyanogenic glycoside content in Cerasus serrulata bark has been published, so the load in any given batch of Ying Pi is unknown.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Cyanogenic herbs and preparations (Ku Xing Ren / Semen Armeniacae Amarum, Tao Ren, bitter apricot kernel, amygdalin or laetrile supplements)
Ying Pi and the bitter kernel drugs come from the same genus and share the same chemistry: cyanogenic glucosides that release hydrogen cyanide on beta-glucosidase hydrolysis. Ku Xing Ren is dose-capped in every pharmacopoeia for exactly this reason. Combining cherry bark with a bitter kernel drug in the same cough or lung-heat formula stacks two cyanogenic sources whose combined load is not quantified for the bark. The clinical evidence base is for the kernel drugs; the bark's contribution is inferred from genus-level chemistry, which is why this is graded Possible and not Established.
Clinical note: Keep Ku Xing Ren at pharmacopoeial dose when Ying Pi is in the same formula, and do not extend the combination in children. Do not use raw, uncooked bark preparations, since heating and prolonged decoction destroy the hydrolysing enzyme.
Tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors and hormone replacement therapy
Pruni Cortex extract and its isolated constituents bind estrogen receptor beta in a binding assay, with the isoflavone genistein among the constituents identified. Receptor binding in vitro is a long way from a clinical effect, and no pharmacokinetic or endocrine study in people exists for this drug, but the finding is real and specific to cherry bark rather than borrowed from another herb.
Clinical note: Avoid prolonged use in patients on antiestrogen therapy for hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, where the cost of being wrong is high and the drug is easily substituted.
Prunus jamasakura and Prunus verecunda bark (Japanese Pharmacopoeia Pruni Cortex) supplied as Ying Pi
Almost the whole published chemistry and pharmacology of cherry bark comes from Pruni Cortex, the Japanese Pharmacopoeia drug, whose official sources are Prunus jamasakura and Prunus verecunda, not Cerasus serrulata. These are closely related flowering cherries within Prunus subgenus Cerasus, whose taxonomy is unsettled and whose names are used interchangeably in trade, so material moves between the two markets under either label. The direction of the risk is evidential rather than toxic: constituent profiles and quantities cannot be assumed identical between species.
Clinical note: When citing sakuranin, sakuranetin or the estrogen receptor data to a patient or a colleague, say that the work was done on Prunus jamasakura bark. Kampo practice also permits oak bark, Quercus cortex, in place of Pruni Cortex, which is a further reason to confirm what is actually in the jar.
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
Sakuranetin downregulates inducible nitric oxide synthase expression by affecting interleukin-1 receptor and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein β
Sakuranetin, the flavanone aglycone of cherry bark, suppressed induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase in interleukin-1 beta-stimulated hepatocytes, acting through the interleukin-1 receptor and the transcription factor C/EBP beta. This gives a defined molecular mechanism for the anti-inflammatory action attributed to Pruni Cortex, at the level of an isolated compound in cell culture.
Evaluation of Estrogen Receptor β Binding of Pruni Cortex and Its Constituents
Pruni Cortex extract and isolated constituents were screened for binding to estrogen receptor beta. Binding activity was detected, identifying cherry bark as a phytoestrogenic drug and providing the only endocrine data available for it. No in vivo or human follow-up has been published.
Historical Texts
Yoka Hosen (Hanaoka Seishu)
Edo period JapanReferences
- Nanae Matsuoka, Tsuyoshi Ikeda, Mona El-Aasr, Hideyuki Manabe, Yoshihiro Murakami, Hiroya Deguchi, Toshihiro Nohara. Study of the chemical constituents of Pruni Cortex and its related parts . Journal of Natural Medicines (2010) [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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