Kuan Jin Teng (Chinese Tinospora Stem)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Kuan Jin Teng?

  9–15 g in decoction (Bensky), per our own record. That is a standard, unremarkable range for a woody stem in the wind-damp category — comparable to other vine and stem medicinals, which are generally dosed higher than flowers or resins because the drug is diluted through a bulk of lignified tissue.

  • Part used — the stem (our record’s Latin is Ramus Tinosporae Sinensis, the branch or stem of the vine), typically sliced.
  • Preparation — decocted with the other herbs. Woody stems are not volatile and are cooked normally.
  • External use — consistent with its traumatic-injury indication, stem medicinals of this kind also appear in soaks and external washes; our record does not specify an external dose.

  Source: our own herb record dosage field, Latin name and part used; preparation conventions for woody stem medicinals per published materia medica consensus. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Kuan Jin Teng?

  Our record states “none noted,” and no cautions specific to Tinospora sinensis are established in the published literature. Two reference points are worth recording anyway, stated as what they are rather than transferred from a different plant.

  • Pattern caution — the herb is bitter and slightly cold and is indicated for wind-damp patterns with heat. A cold-type joint pain that improves with warmth is the wrong pattern for it, and prolonged use of bitter, cold herbs is conventionally held to burden the Spleen and Stomach.
  • Genus-level liver context (see toxicity below) — two other Tinospora species have documented liver-injury reports. Nothing of the kind is documented for T. sinensis, and we do not transfer the finding to it. What follows from it is narrower and defensible: because the genus is confused in the marketplace, correct species identification of the material actually supplied is a reasonable expectation, and a practitioner working with a patient who has existing liver disease has grounds to keep an eye on that.
  • Pregnancy — not specified in our record; as with any channel-unblocking herb, professional supervision is appropriate.

  Source: our own herb record cautions field and properties; genus context per PMID 35037744, PMC 9134809 and PMID 30670256. Reference only — not medical advice.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Does Kuan Jin Teng cause liver damage?

  No liver injury has been reported for Tinospora sinensis. The liver-injury literature in this genus concerns two other species — Tinospora cordifolia and Tinospora crispa — and we set it out here in full precisely so that it is not silently transferred to this herb. Our own record notes no toxicity.

  • Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi / Giloy) — during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the herb was widely promoted in India as an immunity booster, a 13-centre retrospective Indian study reported 43 patients with herb-induced liver injury temporally associated with Giloy use. Median time from first consumption to symptom onset was 46 days; presentations included acute hepatitis, acute worsening of chronic liver disease and acute liver failure; causality assessment classed 67.4% as probable; anti-nuclear antibody was the commonest autoantibody, and biopsies showed autoimmune features. The authors concluded the herb can unmask autoimmune hepatitis in susceptible people. The finding was contested in print, and the exchange is part of the record.
  • The misidentification question, resolved — one line of rebuttal held that patients had actually taken the look-alike T. crispa. A follow-up study collected the plant samples and commercial preparations the patients had consumed and analysed them by morphology, microscopy, high-performance thin-layer chromatography and DNA barcoding. The four plant samples were confirmed as T. cordifolia. So the signal is species-specific to T. cordifolia, not a mistaken-identity artefact.
  • Tinospora crispa — separately, two cases of acute fulminant hepatitis were reported with chronic use of T. crispa, and the accompanying literature review proposed its cis-clerodane-type furanoditerpenoids as a plausible factor. That review is also the source of the finding that these species are widely misidentified online.
  • What about T. sinensis? Searching the published literature returns no case reports, case series or pharmacovigilance signals of liver injury for Tinospora sinensis. On the contrary, the 2024 review of the species lists liver protection among the pharmacological activities reported for it in laboratory work. One honest nuance in the other direction: clerodane furanoditerpenoids — the compound class implicated in the T. crispa discussion — have also been isolated from T. sinensis stems. That is a chemical observation about a shared compound class, not a finding of toxicity, and it should not be read as one. Absence of reports is also not proof of safety; T. sinensis is simply far less consumed and far less studied than Guduchi.

  Summary position. The liver-injury evidence is real, well documented and belongs to T. cordifolia (and separately T. crispa). It is not evidence about Kuan Jin Teng. It is recorded here because the two are the same genus, are confused in trade, and a reader who encounters the Giloy headlines deserves an accurate answer rather than either silence or an unearned transfer of risk.

  Sources: PMID 35037744, PMC 9134809, DOI 10.1002/hep4.1904 (multicentre Indian HILI series, T. cordifolia); PMID 36950495, PMC 10025683, DOI 10.1016/j.jceh.2022.11.001 (DNA barcoding confirmation of the implicated species); PMID 35068778, PMC 8766689 and PMID 34511809, PMC 8416289 (autoimmune-hepatitis discussion); PMID 30670256, DOI 10.1016/j.ctim.2018.11.028 (T. crispa fulminant hepatitis and misidentification); PMID 38546704, DOI 10.1002/cbdv.202302037 (T. sinensis review, liver protection among reported activities); PMID 35478401, DOI 10.1007/s12272-022-01383-5 (clerodane furanoditerpenoids in T. sinensis). Neutral reference information, not a safety guarantee and not medical advice.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No clinical herb–drug interactions are documented for Kuan Jin Teng, but there is one directly relevant laboratory finding on this exact species. A 2022 in-vitro study assessed Tinospora crispa and Tinospora sinensis for herb–drug interaction potential and reported that the methanolic extracts of both showed considerable inhibition of the CYP3A4 enzyme; significant activation of the pregnane X receptor was seen for T. crispa extracts and fractions, with the compound columbin the strongest PXR activator tested. The authors concluded that both species have the potential to mediate herb–drug interactions and called for work to establish clinical relevance.

  How to read that. CYP3A4 is involved in the metabolism of a very large share of prescription medicines, so in-vitro inhibition is a legitimate prompt for practitioner awareness — particularly for patients on narrow-therapeutic-index drugs. It is not a demonstrated clinical interaction: the study used solvent extracts in a laboratory assay, not a decoction in a person, and no clinical confirmation exists. (Flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

  Source: PMID 35245632, PMC 11094663, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2022.115159 (PXR activation and CYP3A4 modulation by T. crispa and T. sinensis). Precautionary; not a demonstrated clinical interaction.

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 Kuan Jin Teng (Tinospora sinensis)?

  Yes, but it is almost entirely chemical and preclinical — there are no randomised controlled trials of this herb. A 2024 review covering literature from 1996 onward catalogued 241 compounds from Tinospora sinensis, mainly terpenes, lignans, alkaloids and phenolic glycosides, and summarised reported anti-inflammatory, analgesic, immunosuppressive, anti-ageing, anti-radiation, anti-leishmanial and liver-protective activities. The same review states candidly that the pharmacodynamic basis is weakly researched and that pharmacokinetic data and quality-control standards remain limited.

  • Anti-inflammatory work — the most active research line, and the one that maps onto the traditional indication. A T. sinensis extract reduced LPS-induced neuroinflammation in mice via TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 signalling, and a companion study characterised the pharmacokinetics and brain distribution of eight anti-inflammatory constituents in normal and neuroinflammatory rats. Animal models.
  • Isolated constituents — clerodane furanoditerpenoids, nor-clerodane analogues, lignans and diterpenoid glucosides have been isolated from the stems, with reported nitric oxide inhibitory, α-glucosidase inhibitory and immunomodulatory activities in assays.
  • Immunomodulation — water and ethanol stem extracts inhibited cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression and anaemia in an early comparative study, with the T. sinensis water extract the most potent tested.
  • Other preclinical lines — protection of pancreatic islet cells in streptozotocin-diabetic rats; a network-pharmacology analysis directed at Alzheimer’s disease; in-vitro colon cancer cell and antimalarial screening. Early-stage laboratory work.

  Reading this honestly. None of the above is clinical evidence, and none of it is a treatment claim. The anti-inflammatory and analgesic findings are broadly consistent with a herb traditionally used for hot, painful joints, but consistency is not confirmation. Note also that much of what a reader will find searching “Tinospora” belongs to T. cordifolia (Guduchi), a different species with a far larger literature — see the notes and toxicity sections.

  Sources: PMID 38546704, DOI 10.1002/cbdv.202302037 (review, 241 compounds); PMID 39245241, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2024.118807 (neuroinflammation, mice); PMID 40348033, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2025.106564 (pharmacokinetics and brain distribution, rats); PMID 35478401, DOI 10.1007/s12272-022-01383-5 and PMID 35519134, PMC 9055830 (clerodane diterpenoids and lignans); PMID 34247773, DOI 10.1016/S1875-5364(21)60049-3 (lignans with NO inhibitory activity); PMID 39122119, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2024.106174 (immunomodulatory clerodanes); PMID 10844163 (comparative immunomodulation); PMID 31669668, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2019.112356 (diabetic rats); PMID 32389853, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2020.112940 (network pharmacology, Alzheimer’s); PMID 36737760, PMC 9896699 (colon cancer cells, in vitro); PMID 39566861, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2024.119134 (antimalarial screening). Research context only — not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• Is Kuan Jin Teng the same as Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia)?

  No — they are two different species in the same genus, and keeping them apart matters more here than for almost any other herb on this site. Our record’s herb is Tinospora sinensis. Guduchi, also called Giloy, is Tinospora cordifolia: a major Ayurvedic medicine with a very large modern literature of its own, a completely separate traditional framework, and — since 2021 — a documented herb-induced liver injury signal in India. A third species, Tinospora crispa, is a bitter Southeast Asian vine with its own, older hepatotoxicity reports.

  • Tinospora sinensis — Kuan Jin Teng; Chinese and Tibetan use; sinew-relaxing, wind-damp, Liver channel; this page.
  • Tinospora cordifolia — Guduchi / Giloy; Ayurvedic; promoted in India as an immunity herb; the subject of the liver-injury case series discussed below.
  • Tinospora crispa — a separate Southeast Asian species associated with acute fulminant hepatitis in published case reports.
  • They are genuinely confused in practice — a published review found that over 35% of web images searched under these species names identified the plants incorrectly, and the two look-alike species have leaves similar enough that self-collectors mistake them.

  Have the species been shown to behave differently?

  Yes, at least in one direct comparison. A 2000 study compared water and ethanol stem extracts of T. cordifolia and T. sinensis and found that both inhibited cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression, with the water extract of T. sinensis the more potent of the four. The genus shares broad activity; the species are not identical.

  Identity note flagged for review (not changed): our record’s Chinese-characters field is empty for this herb, although the name translation (“Vine to Loosen the Sinews”) corresponds to 宽筋藤. Flagged rather than filled in, pending owner confirmation.

  Source: our own herb record Latin name and translation; species comparison per PMID 10844163, DOI 10.1016/s0367-326x(99)00167-7; species misidentification per PMID 30670256, DOI 10.1016/j.ctim.2018.11.028; T. sinensis ethnopharmacology per PMID 38546704. Naming cross-referenced against multiple online sources.