Hu Gu (Tiger Bone)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the dosage of Hu Gu (tiger bone)?

  No dosage is published on this page, and none should be sought. Tiger bone cannot be legally traded, is not supplied by any legitimate herbal pharmacy, and is not used by qualified practitioners. Publishing a dose would imply the substance is obtainable and usable, which it is not — and demand for it is a documented driver of tiger poaching, so a published figure would do real-world harm.

  What is actually used instead is described in the notes section below. Anyone studying the classical formulas for exams or scholarship should learn them in their modern, substituted form, which is how they are written in current pharmacopoeial and teaching sources.

  Source: current legal status of tiger bone (see actions and cautions sections on this page); contemporary formula composition as taught and published today. Reference statement only.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Is Hu Gu legal, and what is the conservation situation?

  It is not legal, and the conservation situation is severe. The tiger is listed on the strictest appendix of the international endangered-species trade convention, which covers all tiger subspecies, and is assessed as Endangered on the global red list, with threat categories varying by subspecies. Global tiger populations have declined by more than 90% over the past two decades. China banned the domestic trade and medicinal use of tiger bone in 1993, following the international trade ban already in force.

  • Traditional-medicine demand is a documented driver of poaching. A survey of 1,880 residents across six Chinese cities found that 43% had consumed some product alleged to contain tiger parts; within that group 71% said they preferred wild-sourced products over farmed ones. The two commonest products named were tiger-bone plasters (38%) and tiger-bone wine (6.4%). Notably, 88% of respondents knew that buying or selling tiger products was illegal and 93% agreed a trade ban was necessary. A separate analysis of Chinese social-media posts about tiger-bone wine found it consumed as a tonic (34%), as medicine (23%), as a game product (30%) and as a display of wealth (28%), and describes its consumption as closely linked to poaching. We state this as a documented fact about the trade, not as a comment on Chinese medicine as a discipline — the profession’s own regulators and manufacturers moved to a licensed artificial substitute.
  • Most “tiger bone” on the market is not tiger. When a highly sensitive tiger-specific DNA test was applied to seven varieties of proprietary pills and plasters claiming to contain tiger bone, none showed any detectable tiger DNA. Forensic laboratories have separately had to develop spectroscopic methods to tell tiger bone from leopard and water-buffalo bone, precisely because substitution and mislabelling are routine. Purchase therefore carries legal exposure and no assurance of what the material actually is.
  • The trade has not disappeared. A 2024 expert study of the Republic of Korea — in the early 1990s one of the world’s largest importers of tiger bone — found that trade fell sharply after it joined the convention in 1993 and banned commercial trade in the listed big cats the following year, but that tiger-bone wine and skins were still being offered on online marketplaces, sometimes openly.
  • Classical cautions (historical record). Our records note that it was classically used with caution in fire from excess or from deficiency. This is retained for completeness of the historical entry only.

  Sources: PMID 41751101, PMC 12937383, DOI 10.3390/ani16040640 (appendix listing covering all subspecies; red-list status; >90% decline); PMID 36195960, PMC 9533506, DOI 10.1186/s13020-022-00627-2 (1993 ban in China); PMID 18596926, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0002544 (six-city consumer survey); PMID 33749024, DOI 10.1111/cobi.13703 (tiger-bone wine consumption and its link to poaching); PMID 15017992, DOI 10.1016/j.forsciint.2003.11.018 (no tiger DNA detectable in seven varieties of proprietary remedies); PMID 42126589, DOI 10.1007/s00114-026-02114-2 (spectroscopic discrimination of tiger, leopard and water-buffalo bone); PMID 38748670, PMC 11095708, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0299783 (Republic of Korea trade trajectory); classical caution recorded on this site. Neutral reference facts.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Is tiger bone toxic?

  No modern toxicological profile is published for tiger bone, because it has not been a legitimate medicinal material for more than thirty years and no legitimate laboratory works with it. Classical sources did not record it as a toxic substance. The absence of a toxicity profile should not be read as reassurance: the material cannot be legally obtained, anything sold under the name is of unknown identity, and the documented risk attached to it is legal and ecological rather than pharmacological.

  Source: absence of any resolvable modern toxicology for this material; classical record as held on this site. Reference statement only.

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 Hu Gu (Os Tigris)?

  Yes, but essentially none of it is on tiger bone itself — it falls into two categories that have nothing to do with using the substance: substitution pharmacology, and wildlife forensics. There is no contemporary clinical research programme on tiger bone as a therapeutic material, and there could not legitimately be one.

  • Substitution pharmacology — almost the whole literature concerns the artificial tiger-bone powder Jintiange, made from farmed-animal skeletons. It has been reported to improve bone volume fraction, trabecular number and three-point-bending strength in ovariectomised rats while raising the bone-formation marker P1NP and lowering the resorption marker CTX; to modulate osteoblast and osteoclast activity in vitro through BMP2/SMAD/RUNX2 and OPG/RANKL signalling; to promote osteogenesis and suppress osteoblast apoptosis via autophagy in cultured cells; to reduce paw swelling, arthritic severity and serum IL-6 in collagen-induced arthritis rats; and to improve grip strength and muscle mass in 12-month-old mice. Nine bioactive peptides were identified in the preparation by mass spectrometry.
  • Wildlife forensics — a real-time PCR assay targeting the tiger mitochondrial cytochrome b gene detects fewer than ten template molecules and reliably amplifies from blood, hair, bone and from remedies spiked with 0.5% tiger bone; infrared spectroscopy with chemometric modelling separates Royal Bengal tiger, Indian leopard and water-buffalo bone at high accuracy even in powdered form. This body of work exists because trafficking is ongoing.
  • Trade and demand research — consumer surveys, social-media analysis and expert elicitation studies characterise who buys tiger products and why, and are used to design conservation interventions rather than clinical ones.

  Sources: PMID 33818004, PMC 8126941, DOI 10.1111/os.12954; PMID 36195960, PMC 9533506, DOI 10.1186/s13020-022-00627-2; PMID 36997131, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2023.116399; PMID 34949931, PMC 8688834, DOI 10.2147/JIR.S338107; PMID 42142553, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2026.121873; PMID 15017992, DOI 10.1016/j.forsciint.2003.11.018; PMID 42126589, DOI 10.1007/s00114-026-02114-2; PMID 18596926, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0002544; PMID 33749024, DOI 10.1111/cobi.13703; PMID 38748670, PMC 11095708, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0299783. Research context, not a therapeutic claim. Animal and cell-culture findings on a substitute product do not establish clinical benefit in people.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What is used instead of tiger bone today, and which formula still carries the name?

  The formally approved replacement is an artificial tiger-bone powder, Jintiange (金天格), manufactured from the skeletons of ordinary farmed animals such as goat and deer. It was developed specifically to substitute for natural tiger bone after the 1993 ban, and it is licensed by China’s drug regulator for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis indications. Within herbal prescribing, the sinew- and bone-strengthening role is filled by ordinary plant herbs already held on this site — principally Xu Duan (Radix Dipsaci) and Gu Sui Bu (Radix Drynariae), sometimes alongside plain pig or cow bone as a mineral-rich, unrestricted animal material.

  Formulas on this site that still carry the historical ingredient in their traditional composition — and which are made today without it:

  • Hu Qian Wan (Hidden Tiger Pill) — the yin-nourishing, sinew-and-bone formula whose classical composition on this site pairs the historical ingredient with Gui Ban, Shu Di Huang, Huang Bai, Zhi Mu, Bai Shao, Suo Yang, Gan Jiang and Chen Pi. It is the only formula in our records that lists it.

  Why substitution research exists at all. Replacement of endangered animal materials has been an explicit research programme rather than an afterthought. Artificial tiger-bone powder has been tested in ovariectomised rats, where it improved bone microstructure and biomechanical strength and shifted bone-turnover markers; in collagen-induced arthritis rats, where it reduced paw swelling and joint inflammation; on cultured osteoblasts, where its protein fraction promoted bone formation; and in aged mice for muscle wasting. A survey of Beijing consumers found that materials from well-known endangered species — tiger bone and bear bile were the examples given — showed relatively high willingness to accept substitutes, which is the practical basis for the switch.

  A note on what the substitute research does and does not show. The work cited here is animal and cell-culture pharmacology of the replacement product, not evidence that either the replacement or the original material treats any condition in people. We record it because it is the documented reason modern formulas can be made without tiger bone, not as a claim of efficacy.

  Sources: PMID 36195960, PMC 9533506, DOI 10.1186/s13020-022-00627-2 (artificial tiger-bone powder prepared from skeletons of farmed animals such as goat and deer; regulator approval; 1993 ban); PMID 42142553, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2026.121873 (approved in China for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis); PMID 33818004, PMC 8126941, DOI 10.1111/os.12954 (bone microstructure and biomechanical strength in ovariectomised rats); PMID 34949931, PMC 8688834, DOI 10.2147/JIR.S338107 (collagen-induced arthritis model); PMID 36997131, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2023.116399 (osteoblast effects of the substitute’s protein fraction); PMID 26930487, PMC 4773180, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0145901 (consumer substitutability of tiger bone and bear bile); formula composition records held on this site; substitute herb identities cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

This herb is from an endangered/protected species and is illegal in the United States