Chou Wu Tong (Glorybower Leaf, Hariy Clerondendron)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Chou Wu Tong?

  Our record gives 5–15 g in decoction from one cited authority and 4.5–15 g from the other — effectively the same ordinary decoction range. It is a conventional, non-restricted herb dosed in ordinary quantities, and it sits in the same bracket as Xi Xian Cao, the herb it is classically paired with, which our records place at 9–15 g.

  • Decoction — 5–15 g (Chen & Chen) or 4.5–15 g (Bensky), of the dried leaf.
  • Processing note — the traditional instruction is that the leaf should be gathered before the plant flowers, and that it should not be subjected to prolonged high heat, since the character of the herb is held to change if it is over-cooked. Recorded as a preparation convention. (Flagged for practitioner confirmation.)
  • External use — also decocted as a wash for eczema and skin conditions, in which case no internal dose applies.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (the two recorded dosage ranges for this herb and the recorded range for Xi Xian Cao, as held on file); published materia medica consensus (Bensky, Materia Medica 3rd ed.; Chen & Chen), cross-referenced against multiple online sources. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Chou Wu Tong? Is it safe?

  Our record notes no cautions, and no toxicity is recorded for this herb — but “none noted” is not the same as “none exist”, and two practical points follow from what the herb actually does. It lowers blood pressure, and it is a cool, dispersing herb.

  • Blood pressure — the herb’s recorded action includes lowering blood pressure, and the modern literature supports a hypotensive effect. That makes low blood pressure, and concurrent antihypertensive medication, the obvious situations calling for care. See the interactions section.
  • Pattern fit — as a cool herb in a mostly warming category, it suits hot, inflamed joint presentations and is a poor match for cold-damp obstruction, which is what most wind-damp herbs are chosen for. Choosing it by category alone rather than by thermal character is the likeliest error.
  • Pregnancy and nursing — no specific contraindication is recorded on our entry, and no safety data in pregnancy could be sourced. Avoidance in the absence of data is the conventional precaution. (Precautionary; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)
  • Correct identification — see the notes section on the wu tong / wu tou distinction. This is the caution that matters most about this herb, and it concerns what might be dispensed in its place rather than the herb itself.
  • Research is not a safety clearance — a 2024 review of the species concluded explicitly that further research on the safety, efficacy, mechanisms and dosage of the raw material is needed before it can be used in modern medicine. That is the accurate position.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (“none noted” recorded for cautions, no toxicity classification, and the recorded blood-pressure action, as held on file); PMID 39064848, PMC 11279216, DOI 10.3390/molecules29143272 (review concluding that further safety, efficacy and dosage research is required). Neutral reference disclosures, not usage instructions.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Is Chou Wu Tong toxic?

  Chou Wu Tong is not classified as a toxic herb, and no toxicity is recorded on our own entry. It carries no toxicity flag on this site, unlike the aconites with which its name is sometimes confused.

  Two historical points belong on the record for completeness. The earliest modern pharmacological study of this drug — a 1962 Chinese paper explicitly titled as a study of the Chinese drug chou-wu-tung — examined the toxicity and the hypotensive effect of an infusion and a crude extract together, in the same investigation. A 1965 companion-era study examined the anti-inflammatory activities and toxicities of constituents isolated from a composite preparation combining this plant with Bidens bipinnata. In other words, toxicity was assessed early and alongside the activity, and the herb went on to be used without a toxicity classification. Neither paper's detailed findings are reproduced here; they are cited as evidence that the question was investigated rather than overlooked. No case literature of harm from ordinary dispensed use was found.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (no recorded toxicity classification, as held on file); PMID 14075931 (1962 pharmacological study of the Chinese drug chou-wu-tung: toxicity and hypotensive effect of infusion and crude extract); PMID 14295456 (1965 study of anti-inflammatory activities and toxicities of constituents from a composite preparation containing this plant). Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does Chou Wu Tong interact with medications?

  No clinical herb–drug interaction is documented for Chou Wu Tong, and no human pharmacokinetic study of it could be found — but its best-characterised laboratory mechanism is one that overlaps directly with a major drug class, and that is worth stating. Bioassay-guided work isolated five phenylpropanoid glycosides from this plant — acteoside, leucosceptoside A, martynoside, an acteoside isomer and isomartynoside — and found that all five inhibited angiotensin-converting enzyme in a dose-dependent manner. ACE inhibition is the mechanism of a whole family of prescription antihypertensives.

  • Antihypertensive medication — because both the traditional action and the reported laboratory mechanism point the same way, additive blood-pressure lowering alongside ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or other antihypertensives is the theoretical concern. This is a mechanistic overlap, not an observed clinical interaction.
  • Scale of the finding — the reported inhibitory concentrations were in the hundreds of micrograms per millilitre, which is weak by pharmaceutical standards. The authors framed their result as explaining the traditional antihypertensive use “at least in part”, not as identifying a potent inhibitor.
  • Other signals — laboratory work also reports α-glucosidase inhibition and PPAR-γ agonist activity for constituents of this plant, and improvement of metabolic derangements in high-fructose-fed rats, which raises the same additive question for antidiabetic medication. Preclinical only.
  • Practical position — anyone taking blood-pressure or blood-glucose medication should have this herb reviewed by their prescriber and their practitioner together. (Precautionary; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

  Sources: PMID 14522447, DOI 10.1016/s0378-8741(03)00274-5 (angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitory phenylpropanoid glycosides); PMID 39437854, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2024.106266 (α-glucosidase inhibitory and PPAR-γ agonist constituents); PMID 35059139, PMC 8765252, DOI 10.1080/19768354.2021.2004221 (metabolic derangements in high-fructose-fed rats). Preclinical context, not a clinical interaction claim.

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 Chou Wu Tong (Clerodendrum trichotomum)?

  Yes — a modest but unusually coherent body of it, and its most striking feature is that the modern work lines up with the traditional antihypertensive use rather than wandering off in an unrelated direction. Roughly forty papers exist. Two recent reviews summarise the field; the mechanistic anchor is a study identifying angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors in the plant. It is all preclinical — no clinical trial in people could be identified — and none of it establishes a treatment for anything.

  • The antihypertensive thread is old and continuous — the earliest indexed pharmacological study, published in 1962, is titled as an investigation of the toxicity and hypotensive effect of an infusion and crude extract of the Chinese drug chou-wu-tung, made from the aerial parts of this plant. Four decades later, a bioassay-guided study opening with the observation that the stems “have been traditionally used for treatment of hypertension in far East Asia including China, Korea, and Japan” isolated five phenylpropanoid glycosides and showed that each inhibited angiotensin-converting enzyme dose-dependently. A traditional indication, an early pharmacology paper and a modern mechanism study pointing at the same thing is a rarer alignment than it sounds.
  • Chemistry — a 2025 review counts 164 secondary metabolites isolated from the species, dominated by terpenoids, flavonoids, steroids, phenylpropanoids and phenylpropanoid glycosides, phenylethanoids, phenolic glycosides, anthraquinones, polyketones, alkaloids and acid amides, and attributes the plant’s activity diversity particularly to its abietane and clerodane diterpenes, phenylpropanoid glycosides and flavonoid glycosides. Individual isolations continue: rearranged abietane diterpenoids from the roots with cytotoxicity against human tumour cells, abietane diterpenoids with nitric-oxide inhibitory activity, novel polyketones from leaves and twigs, and cytotoxic steroids from the leaves.
  • Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant work — closest to the wind-damp use — anti-inflammatory phenylpropanoid glycosides have been characterised from the leaves, and antioxidant activity reported for individual constituents including jionoside D, isoacteoside and trichotomoside. A review notes the folk use of the plant for rheumatoid arthritis, joint pain, skin inflammation and asthma, alongside anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anticancer, sedative and hypotensive effects.
  • Metabolic and other animal models — leaf extract prevented hyperuricaemia in a potassium-oxonate-induced mouse model, extract improved metabolic derangements in high-fructose-fed rats, and constituents show α-glucosidase inhibitory and PPAR-γ agonist activity. Extract has also been reported to attenuate UV-B-induced skin impairment in hairless mice via MAPK signalling, and, with Plantago asiatica, to show anti-respiratory-syncytial-virus activity in vitro and in vivo.
  • Newer directions — neuroprotective abietane diterpenoids from the roots, and green-synthesised gold nanoparticles prepared using plant extract evaluated for antibacterial and anticancer applications. Early-stage laboratory work.
  • What is missing — no controlled clinical trial, no human pharmacokinetic data, and, as a 2024 review states directly, insufficient evidence on safety, efficacy, mechanism and dosage for modern medical use.

  Honest summary: the traditional claim that this leaf lowers blood pressure is one of the better-supported minor-herb claims in the materia medica — supported in the sense that a plausible mechanism has been identified and the tradition has been consistently reported across three East Asian countries, not in the sense that it has been shown to work in patients. It has not. Everything above is laboratory and animal work.

  Sources: PMID 39834825, PMC 11743446, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2024.1505851 (review of phytochemical composition and pharmacological activities; 164 metabolites); PMID 39064848, PMC 11279216, DOI 10.3390/molecules29143272 (review of phytochemistry and in-vitro and in-vivo pharmacology; folk-use range; call for further safety and dosage research); PMID 14075931 (1962 study of toxicity and hypotensive effect of infusion and crude extract); PMID 14522447, DOI 10.1016/s0378-8741(03)00274-5 (angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitory phenylpropanoid glycosides); PMID 23462587, DOI 10.1016/j.phytochem.2013.01.008 (rearranged abietane diterpenoids from the roots, cytotoxicity); PMID 29924604, DOI 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00814 (abietane diterpenoids with nitric-oxide inhibitory activity); PMID 33871298, DOI 10.1080/10286020.2021.1914598 (polyketones from leaves and twigs); PMID 23583601, DOI 10.1016/j.steroids.2013.03.002 (cytotoxic steroids from the leaves); PMID 19183871, DOI 10.1007/s12272-009-1112-6 (anti-inflammatory phenylpropanoid glycosides from the leaves); PMID 15467185, DOI 10.1248/bpb.27.1504 (jionoside D antioxidant activity); PMID 15799629, DOI 10.1080/15287390590900750 (isoacteoside antioxidant activity); PMID 17193214, DOI 10.1002/cbdv.200690005 (trichotomoside); PMID 32734126, PMC 7375980, DOI 10.12717/DR.2020.24.2.89 (hyperuricaemia prevention in mice); PMID 35059139, PMC 8765252, DOI 10.1080/19768354.2021.2004221 (metabolic derangements in high-fructose-fed rats); PMID 39437854, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2024.106266 (α-glucosidase inhibitory and PPAR-γ agonist constituents); PMID 39541388, DOI 10.1111/phpp.13011 (UV-B-induced skin impairment in hairless mice); PMID 31277257, PMC 6669655, DOI 10.3390/v11070604 (anti-respiratory-syncytial-virus activity in vitro and in vivo); PMID 40120983, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2025.106488 (neuroprotective abietane diterpenoids from the roots); PMID 40061880, PMC 11887508, DOI 10.2147/IJN.S503254 (green-synthesised gold nanoparticles, antibacterial and anticancer evaluation). Research context, not a therapeutic claim. Animal and cell findings do not establish clinical benefit in people.

Chinese Herb Notes

• Is Chou Wu Tong related to Wu Tou (aconite)?

  No — and this is a pinyin trap worth closing firmly, because the two sit in adjacent clinical territory and one of them is among the most dangerous herbs in the materia medica. Wu tong and wu tou differ by one syllable in transliteration, are written with entirely different characters, and name entirely different plants.

  • Chou Wu Tong (this page) — the leaf of Clerodendrum trichotomum, in the mint family (Lamiaceae). Wu tong here is a borrowed name referring to the Chinese parasol tree, used because of the leaf shape; chou means foul-smelling. Spicy, bitter, sweet, cool; Liver channel; dispels wind-damp and settles Liver yang. Not classified as toxic in our records; 4.5–15 g.
  • Wu Tou — aconite root, Aconitum species. This site holds two of them: Chuan Wu (prepared Sichuan aconite, Radix Aconiti Preparata) and Cao Wu (prepared wild aconite, Radix Aconiti Kusnezoffii Preparata). Both are spicy, bitter, hot, both are recorded as extremely toxic and flagged as such on this site, both enter the Heart, Liver and Spleen channels, and both are classified among the herbs that warm the interior and expel cold — the opposite thermal direction from Chou Wu Tong.
  • Why the confusion is dangerous rather than merely untidy — aconite and Chou Wu Tong are both used for painful, obstructed limbs, so the two names can plausibly appear in the same clinical conversation. Their safety profiles could hardly be further apart. Any material labelled with a bare “wu” syllable must be confirmed by Latin name before use.

  What is Chou Wu Tong combined with — the Xi Xian Cao pairing?

  Its classic partner is Xi Xian Cao (Herba Siegesbeckiae), and the two together form the traditional pill preparation known as Xi Tong Wan — named simply by taking one syllable from each herb. The pairing is the standard traditional treatment for wind-damp obstruction with numbness, aching limbs and stiffness, and it is also the traditional vehicle for the blood-pressure indication that both herbs carry.

  • Why the two go together — both are recorded here in the wind-dampness category, both are cool rather than warm (unusual in that group, most of which is warming), and both enter the Liver channel. Xi Xian Cao is bitter and cold, entering Kidney and Liver; Chou Wu Tong is spicy, bitter, sweet and cool, entering Liver. A cool wind-damp pair suits hot, inflamed joint patterns, which the warming wind-damp herbs aggravate.
  • The shared blood-pressure thread — our own Xi Xian Cao record notes its traditional use where heat-type patterns produce hypertension-like presentations, and our Chou Wu Tong record records lowering blood pressure directly. The pairing therefore doubles up on both of the herbs’ recorded actions rather than combining two unrelated ones.
  • Our own data — this pairing is not currently held anywhere in our own records: no Xi Tong Wan formula entry exists, no formula links either herb, and no herb-combination record connects them. The pairing is reported here from the published materia medica consensus, and is flagged as an addition our formula data does not yet carry. (Flagged for owner decision.)

  Identity field flagged, not corrected. Our record carries no Chinese characters for this entry. Given that the whole of the preceding disambiguation turns on the difference between two characters, and given that Chuan Wu and Cao Wu also carry no characters on their own records, the absence is worth closing across all three. The field has been left exactly as held; supplying it is an owner decision.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (the identity, category, nature, flavour, channel, dosage and indication records for Chou Wu Tong, Xi Xian Cao, Chuan Wu and Cao Wu, the toxicity flags on the two aconites, and the absence of any Xi Tong Wan formula record, formula link or herb-combination link, as held on file); published materia medica consensus (Bensky, Materia Medica 3rd ed.; Chen & Chen), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; botanical placement per PMID 39064848, PMC 11279216, DOI 10.3390/molecules29143272. Disambiguation note, not treatment advice.