☯ TCM Properties
Calms the Liver, clears Heat, promotes diuresis and removes toxicity
Traditional Chinese Uses
Zhen Zhu Cao ("pearl grass," also called Ye Xia Zhu) is the whole herb of Phyllanthus urinaria, used to clear Heat, calm the Liver, resolve toxicity, and promote urination. Sweet and bitter with a cool nature, it enters the Liver and Lung channels. Its best-known application is for Liver damp-heat: it is a common folk treatment for jaundice and infectious hepatitis, and for red, swollen, painful eyes ("Liver fire rising"). Its heat-clearing and detoxifying actions address summer-heat dysentery, enteritis with diarrhea, and sores or mouth ulcers.
Through promoting urination it drains damp-heat downward, treating painful urinary dysfunction and edema, and it is also used in southern China for childhood malnutrition (gan) with accumulation. It is typically decocted or the fresh plant is pounded for topical use on sores.
Western Herbalism Properties
Botanical Description
Zhen Zhu Cao (珍珠草), or pearl-grass, is Phyllanthus urinaria L., a small annual herb in the Phyllanthaceae (formerly Euphorbiaceae) widespread across tropical and subtropical Asia. The plant grows 10–60 cm tall with slender, often reddish, ribbed stems bearing two ranks of small oblong leaflets that close at night, giving a fern-like appearance. Tiny apetalous unisexual flowers and minute warty capsular fruits sit beneath the leaf axils in two neat rows along the underside of the branchlets, resembling rows of pearls. The whole plant is collected in summer and autumn, washed, and dried for medicinal use; it is widely employed in southern China and across Southeast Asia for liver and urinary conditions.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 6-15g | Daily | — | — | — |
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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