Zang Qing Guo
StarTerminalia chebula Retz.
Traditionally used for
- Nose & throat
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Bowel health
- Energy & fatigue
☯ TCM Properties
Clears Heat and Generates Fluids; Benefits the Throat and Restores the Voice; Resolves Toxicity; Astringes the Intestines and Stops Diarrhea
Traditional Chinese Uses
Zang Qing Guo (Tibetan olive, olea dioica fruit) is a cool, sour-bitter herb used in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine primarily for conditions of the respiratory tract, including chronic bronchitis, cough, and throat inflammation. It clears Lung Heat, soothes the throat, and addresses certain types of infection. Its use in Tibetan medical traditions extends to conditions of the digestive system and as a general cooling remedy in hot or inflammatory conditions.
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
Terminalia chebula, the chebulic myrobalan or haritaki, is a medium to large deciduous tree of the family Combretaceae, reaching 20 to 30 meters tall, native to South and Southeast Asia and southern China, where it occurs in dry deciduous forests up to about 1500 meters. The bark is dark brown to grayish, longitudinally fissured. Its leaves are simple, opposite or subopposite, ovate to elliptic, 7 to 20 cm long, with two glands on the petiole near the leaf base. Short axillary spikes bear small dull yellowish-white flowers with an unpleasant odor in summer, followed by characteristic five-ridged or smooth ovoid drupes 2 to 4 cm long, ripening from green to yellow-brown or blackish, with a hard, single-seeded stone and an astringent fleshy mesocarp. The dried mature fruits are the medicinal Zang Qing Guo / Haritaki.
Active Constituents
Ethyl gallate
Phenolic acid ester (gallate ester)Isolated from the immature fruit and the most potent antibacterial constituent found in it, with an MIC of 0.156 mg/mL against Klebsiella pneumoniae. Electron microscopy showed it kills by rupturing the bacterial cell membrane, with cytoplasmic leakage and cell wall degradation, rather than by an enzyme-specific mechanism.
Tri-n-butyl chebulate
Chebuloyl ester (chebulic acid derivative)Concentration: a minor constituent; first reported from this drug in 2016
A chebulic acid ester newly reported from Fructus Chebulae Immaturus, active against Klebsiella pneumoniae at an MIC of 1.25 mg/mL. Its chebuloyl skeleton is characteristic of the genus Terminalia and helps distinguish this drug chemically from the Chinese olive it is confused with in trade.
Total hydrolysable tannins
Hydrolysable tannins (gallotannins and ellagitannins)Concentration: the dominant fraction; in authentic Chebulae Fructus material hydrolysable tannins account for about 84% of measured phenolic content
The tannin fraction as a whole, rather than any single marker, carries the astringent and antibacterial action of the drug; the crude tannins gave an MIC of 0.3125 mg/mL against Klebsiella pneumoniae. Because large polyphenols precipitate mucosal protein, this fraction is the physical basis of the throat-soothing and intestine-astringing use.
Gallic acid
Phenolic acidConcentration: the phenolic acid extract of the immature fruit assayed at 111.58 +/- 2.26 mg/g gallic acid equivalents
One of the ten most abundant components of the immature fruit's phenolic acid fraction, and a hydrolysis product of the gallotannins, so its measured level rises with heat, sun-drying and storage. Sun-drying has been shown to convert the complex tannins of chebulic fruit into gallic acid, ellagic acid and chebulic acid, which means processing conditions materially change the assay profile.
Chebulagic acid
Chebuloyl ellagitanninA genus-characteristic ellagitannin present among the most abundant components of the immature fruit, and one of the tannins shown to degrade to chebulic and gallic acid during sun-drying. It is used as an identity marker for Terminalia chebula material.
Corilagin
EllagitanninAmong the ten most abundant compounds quantified in the phenolic acid extract of the immature fruit by HPLC-MS/MS. It is one of the polyphenols most often credited with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of chebulic fruit preparations.
Ellagic acid
Polyphenol (dilactone of hexahydroxydiphenic acid)Isolated directly from the immature fruit and also generated from the ellagitannins during processing and decoction, so much of what a patient receives is formed in preparation rather than present in the raw drug.
Chebuloside II
Triterpenoid saponinOne of the ten most abundant constituents of the immature fruit's phenolic acid extract. Its presence, alongside the triterpenoid arjugenin, marks the non-tannin fraction of the drug.
Arjugenin
Pentacyclic triterpenoid (oleanane)A triterpene aglycone isolated from Fructus Chebulae Immaturus. It was not among the antibacterially active fractions in that work and is best regarded as a chemotaxonomic rather than an active constituent.
Shikimic acid
Cyclohexene carboxylic acid (shikimate pathway intermediate)Quantified among the most abundant small acids of the immature fruit's phenolic extract. It is a biosynthetic precursor of the gallic acid and tannin complex that dominates the drug.
Beta-sitosterol
PhytosterolA ubiquitous plant sterol isolated from the immature fruit during antibacterial fractionation. It was inactive in that assay and carries no specific clinical significance here.
⚠ Drug Interactions
He Zi / Chebulae Fructus (the mature fruit of the same species)
Zang Qing Guo (also Xi Qing Guo) is the immature, non-lignified fruit of Terminalia chebula, briefly boiled and dried; He Zi is the mature fruit of the same species. A 2024 quality study of Chebulae Fructus explicitly lists Chebulae Fructus Immaturus among the four materials substituted for the mature drug, and found that the immature fruit differs greatly from the mature fruit in punicalagin, chebulagic acid and chebulanin content, so the two are chemically as well as clinically distinct. Chinese practice separates them: the mature fruit is used to astringe the intestines and the Lung, the immature fruit chiefly to clear heat, generate fluids and benefit the throat in diphtheria, tonsillitis and bacterial dysentery.
Clinical note: Confirm which fruit you have been supplied. Prescriptions for throat heat calling for Zang Qing Guo are not fulfilled by He Zi and vice versa, and quantitative tannin specifications written for one do not apply to the other.
Qing Guo / Canarii Fructus (Canarium album, Chinese olive)
Canarii Fructus (Qing Guo, Chinese olive, Burseraceae) and Chebulae Fructus Immaturus (Xi Qing Guo / Zang Qing Guo, Combretaceae) are similar in appearance and share the Qing Guo name element, and both are used for sore throat, which is exactly why they are interchanged. The confusion is serious enough that a 2026 analytical study developed a digital-image colour-histogram and chemometric method specifically to discriminate the two and determine their constituents. They are not the same genus, family or chemical class: Canarium album is not a hydrolysable-tannin drug.
Clinical note: Treat any material simply labelled Qing Guo as unidentified. Where the intended drug is the Terminalia article, require the fuller name Xi Qing Guo or Zang Qing Guo plus the binomial, and verify by tannin marker profile rather than by appearance.
CYP2C19 substrates (omeprazole and other proton pump inhibitors, voriconazole, diazepam, clopidogrel)
This is an extrapolation across maturity stages and must be read as such. CYP2C19 inhibition has been observed in rats given the mature fruit of Terminalia chebula, not the immature fruit, and the two differ substantially in their tannin composition. Because the immature fruit contains the same class of hydrolysable tannins that were credited with the effect, an interaction cannot be excluded, but no study of Chebulae Fructus Immaturus has tested it. Clopidogrel is the asymmetric case: it is a prodrug activated by CYP2C19, so inhibition would reduce rather than increase its effect.
Clinical note: No action is mandated on current evidence. If a patient on clopidogrel or a narrow-margin CYP2C19 substrate takes this herb at high dose or long term, monitor rather than assume no effect.
Oral iron salts, and alkaloid-containing or protein drugs given by mouth
Hydrolysable tannins make up the great majority of the phenolic content of chebulic fruit material, and tannins are established precipitants of alkaloids and proteins and established inhibitors of non-haem iron absorption by complexing ferric iron in the gut lumen. This is a class effect of high-tannin drugs rather than a finding specific to Terminalia chebula, but the tannin load of this drug is high enough that it should be assumed to apply.
Clinical note: Separate from oral iron and from alkaloidal medicines by at least two hours. Relevant in anaemic and pregnant patients, in whom a persistently high-tannin decoction can undercut iron repletion.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 3 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
3
2 verified · 1 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Antibacterial constituents of Fructus Chebulae Immaturus and their mechanisms of action
- Phenolic Acids from Fructus Chebulae Immaturus Alleviate Intestinal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Mice through the PPARα/NF-κB Pathway
- Protective effect of phenolic acids from Chebulae Fructus immaturus on carbon tetrachloride induced acute liver injury via suppressing oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in mouse
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
Antibacterial constituents of Fructus Chebulae Immaturus and their mechanisms of action
Bioassay-guided fractionation of the immature fruit yielded five compounds: ellagic acid, ethyl gallate, arjugenin, beta-sitosterol and tri-n-butyl chebulate, the last newly reported from this drug. Against Klebsiella pneumoniae, ethyl gallate gave an MIC of 0.156 mg/mL, the total tannins 0.3125 mg/mL and tri-n-butyl chebulate 1.25 mg/mL. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed the active constituents act by rupturing the bacterial cell membrane, with cell swelling, cytoplasmic leakage at the rupture sites and cell wall degradation, supporting the traditional use of this drug in bacterial dysentery and throat infection.
Phenolic Acids from Fructus Chebulae Immaturus Alleviate Intestinal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Mice through the PPARα/NF-κB Pathway
A phenolic acid extract of the immature fruit, assaying at 111.58 +/- 2.26 mg/g gallic acid equivalents and profiled by HPLC-MS/MS to 29 phenolic components (the most abundant being caffeic acid, corilagin, euphormisin M3, chebuloside II, shikimic acid, gallic acid, chebulagic acid, ellagic acid, dehydrodigallic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid), reduced intestinal damage in a mouse ischaemia-reperfusion model. The extract lowered oxidative stress, inflammatory signalling and cell death, with the effect attributed to PPARα activation and NF-κB suppression. This is an animal study of an enriched extract, not of the decocted drug, and no human data follow from it.
Protective effect of phenolic acids from Chebulae Fructus immaturus on carbon tetrachloride induced acute liver injury via suppressing oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in mouse
Phenolic acids from the immature fruit reduced carbon tetrachloride induced acute liver injury in mice, with the protective effect attributed to suppression of oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. As with the intestinal work from the same group, this tests an enriched phenolic fraction in a chemical-injury model and does not establish hepatoprotection in humans.
Historical Texts
Jin Gui Yao Lue
Han dynastyReferences
- Xu Jian, Wang Xiangdong, Yu Huijuan, Chai Xin, Zhang Min, Wu Hong-Hua, Wang Yuefei. Study on Quality Characteristic of Chebulae Fructus and Its Adulterants and Degradation Pathway of Hydrolyzable Tannins . Molecules (2024) [DOI]
- Lei Yicheng, Zhang Ruiyuan, Liu Fang, Meng Zhenqing, Song Yao, Fu Chaomei, Liang Ying. Rapid discriminate and determination of chemical constituents of Canarii Fructus (Chinese olive) and Chebulae Fructus Immaturus using digital image-based color histograms and chemometrics . Talanta (2026) [DOI]
- Chen Wei, Tohniyaz Gvlzapar, Ma Qin, Abai Israp. Comparison of the Hepatotoxicities of raw Chebulae Fructus Immaturus and its almond oil-processed product . Pharmacological Research - Modern Chinese Medicine (2026) [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 Zang Qing Guo.
No notes yet.