Ce Bai Ye (Biota Leaves, Leafy Twig of Arborvitae)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Ce Bai Ye?

  10–15 g in decoction is the figure held in our own record; published materia medica give a slightly wider band of roughly 6–15 g. It is decocted normally, with no pre-cooking or special handling.

  • Internal, decoction — 10–15 g (our record); commonly cited range 6–15 g.
  • Charred (Ce Bai Ye Tan) — the same weight range; charring shifts the emphasis toward stopping bleeding.
  • Topical — powdered and applied to minor burns or bleeding wounds; for hair loss, traditionally soaked in alcohol as a tincture and applied to the scalp. Topical amounts are determined by the area treated, not by a weight range.

  Source: our own herb record (10–15 g); published materia medica consensus. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Ce Bai Ye?

  Ce Bai Ye is bitter and cold, so the main caution is cold or deficiency in the digestive system. Our record lists three:

  • Middle Jiao deficiency or cold — use cautiously; a cold, bitter herb can further weaken digestion in these patterns.
  • Blood stasis — use with caution. Because Ce Bai Ye is astringent as well as cooling, it can make an existing stasis harder to break.
  • Overdose — may cause nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Stay within the normal range.

  Additional practical points: bleeding of any significance is a medical matter and needs a diagnosis, not a herb; and although this is a widely used and well-tolerated herb, prolonged high-dose internal use is not supported by the traditional record. The topical hair-loss use is external only — an alcohol tincture prepared for the scalp is not for drinking.

  Source: our own herb record cautions; published materia medica consensus; toxicology summarised in the published review at DOI 10.1142/S0192415X14500347. Reference note, not a safety guarantee — consult a qualified practitioner.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does Ce Bai Ye interact with medications?

  No well-established clinical herb–drug interactions are documented. One theoretical area deserves practitioner awareness: preclinical work shows carbonised Platycladus orientalis material promotes platelet adhesion, activation and aggregation and shortens clotting through the extrinsic and common coagulation pathways in rats (PMID 37607318, DOI 10.1002/smll.202303498). On that basis, patients taking anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication should have their herbalist and their doctor aware of one another — this is precautionary reasoning from animal data, not a demonstrated clinical interaction.

  Topical scalp preparations are the more commonly used form for hair loss and are not expected to produce systemic drug interactions, but anyone combining a herbal scalp preparation with a prescribed topical such as minoxidil should tell their prescriber. (Precautionary reference note.)

Western / Biomedical Research

Chinese Herb Clinical Studies & Research

Provided as research context — a summary of published biomedical study, not a therapeutic or medical claim.

• Is there modern research on Ce Bai Ye (Platycladus orientalis leaf)?

  Yes — and the strongest body of it is on hair growth, which matches one of the herb’s traditional topical uses. A comprehensive published review covering botany, processing, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Platycladus orientalis leaves describes them as a blood-cooling and hemostatic herb in Chinese medicine and reports activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, diuretic, hair-growth-promoting, neuroprotective and antifibrotic effects, with diterpenes and flavonoids as the likely active constituents. That review explicitly notes that the mechanism of the blood-cooling and hemostatic action still needs to be worked out (PMID 24871649, DOI 10.1142/S0192415X14500347).

  • Hair growth — the best-developed line of research (all preclinical). An extract inhibited testosterone 5α-reductase, reduced skin DHT levels and promoted hair regrowth in an androgen-sensitive mouse model (PMID 26571086). The volatile oil promoted proliferation of dermal papilla cells in vitro and prolonged the anagen (growth) phase of hair follicles in C57BL/6 mice, outperforming 2% minoxidil in that model (PMID 30917929). A water extract promoted hair growth in shaved mice via Akt/GSK3β/β-catenin signalling (PMID 36891275, PMC 9986263, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2023.1038039). Further work identified ACK1 activation as a pathway (PMID 39451545, PMC 11505925) and isolated an individual hair-growth-promoting lignan (PMID 40507997, PMC 12154219). These are cell and mouse studies. No adequately powered human trial establishes efficacy for hair loss.
  • Hemostasis (preclinical) — carbon dots derived from carbonised Platycladus orientalis accelerated hemostasis in rat liver-injury and tail-amputation models and in a “blood-heat haemorrhage” rat model, acting through platelet activation and the extrinsic/common coagulation pathways (PMID 37607318, DOI 10.1002/smll.202303498). This is a nanomaterial derived from the charred herb rather than the crude drug, but it is a direct laboratory counterpart to the traditional charred-hemostatic use.
  • Anti-inflammatory (preclinical) — the leaf volatile oil suppressed inflammation via the IκB/NF-κB pathway (PMID 33582924).

  Overall: a plausible, reasonably deep preclinical literature that lines up with the traditional hemostatic and hair-growth uses, but no clinical evidence base. Research is context here, not a medical claim.

  Sources: PMID 24871649, DOI 10.1142/S0192415X14500347 (review); PMID 26571086; PMID 30917929; PMID 36891275, PMC 9986263, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2023.1038039; PMID 39451545, PMC 11505925; PMID 40507997, PMC 12154219; PMID 37607318, DOI 10.1002/smll.202303498; PMID 33582924. Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What is the difference between Ce Bai Ye and Bai Zi Ren?

  They come from the same plant but are completely different herbs in use. Platycladus orientalis (formerly Biota orientalis, Chinese arborvitae) yields two separate medicinals, and mixing them up is a real clinical error:

  • Ce Bai Ye (侧柏叶) — the leafy twig. Bitter, astringent, slightly cold; Lung, Liver, Large Intestine. Category: Herbs that Stop Bleeding. Cools blood, stops bleeding, stops cough; topical for burns and hair loss.
  • Bai Zi Ren (柏子仁) — the seed kernel. Sweet, neutral; Heart, Kidney, Large Intestine. Category: Herbs that Nourish the Heart and Calm the Spirit. Nourishes the Heart, calms the spirit for insomnia and palpitations, and moistens the intestines for dry constipation.

  In short: the leaf cools and stops bleeding; the seed calms the spirit and moistens. Neither substitutes for the other. This is the same one-plant-two-herbs pattern seen with the mulberry (leaf, twig, root bark, fruit) and the lotus (seed, plumule, node, leaf).

  Which formulas contain Ce Bai Ye?

  Ce Bai Ye appears in five formulas in our own collection, all of them bleeding formulas — which is a good illustration of how tightly the herb sits inside one clinical role:

  • Si Sheng Wan (Four Fresh Pill) — the classic pairing for hot bleeding, built on fresh cooling herbs.
  • Bai Ye Tang (Biota Twig Decoction) — named for the herb itself.
  • Shi Hui San (Ten Partially Charred Substances Powder) — the archetypal charred-herb hemostatic formula.
  • Huai Hua San (Sophora Japonica Flower Powder) — for bleeding in the lower body.
  • Qing Re Zhi Beng Tang (Clear Heat and Stop Excessive Uterine Bleeding Decoction).

  (Traditional formula context, not treatment advice.)

  Naming note: our record gives the pharmaceutical Latin as “Cacumen Biotae Orientalis.” Modern botanical and pharmacopoeial usage has moved to Platycladus orientalis and the Latin name “Cacumen Platycladi,” and the research literature is indexed under Platycladus orientalis. These refer to the same plant — Biota orientalis is the older synonym. The identity field is left unchanged pending owner confirmation; readers searching the scientific literature should search “Platycladus orientalis.”

  Source: our own herb records for Ce Bai Ye and Bai Zi Ren; our own formula links; published materia medica consensus; botanical synonymy confirmed against the taxonomic literature. Traditional context only.