Shi Shang Bai (Selaginella)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Shi Shang Bai?

  Our record gives 15–30 g, rising to as much as 60 g where it is being used for tumours or cirrhosis of the liver. That is a high ceiling, and it puts this herb in the same dosing bracket as the other two large-dose heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herbs used in the same clinical setting — Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian, both recorded here at 15–60 g.

  • Ordinary use — 15–30 g of the dried whole plant in decoction.
  • High-dose use — up to 60 g, recorded specifically for tumours and for cirrhosis of the liver. Doses at this level belong under professional supervision; see the cautions section, which records adverse effects reported at sustained high dose.
  • Comparable herbs — Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian, the two herbs it is most often prescribed with, are both recorded at 15–60 g on their own entries. All three are bulky, mild-tasting whole-plant medicinals dosed by volume rather than potency.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (the recorded dosage for Shi Shang Bai and the recorded ranges for Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian, as held on file). Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Shi Shang Bai? Is it safe?

  Our record notes that side effects may include digestive discomfort, reduced appetite and hair loss. Those are unusual entries for a heat-clearing herb, and they are worth taking at face value: they are the effects reported where the herb is given at the upper end of its range, over an extended period, in the oncology-adjacent setting where it is most often used. Reduced appetite and hair loss in particular are not trivial observations for a herb dosed at up to 60 g.

  • Reported adverse effects — general discomfort, reduction of appetite, and hair loss, per our record. These appear in the context of sustained high-dose use rather than short courses at ordinary dose.
  • High-dose use requires supervision — the 60 g ceiling recorded for tumours and cirrhosis is a professional-practice figure. This is reference information about what the literature records, not an instruction for use.
  • Pattern fit — a cold, draining, toxin-resolving herb is a poor match for cold patterns, for weak digestion without heat, and for pure deficiency. The recorded appetite effect makes the digestion point more than theoretical.
  • Correct identification — because “Selaginella” is sold in English without a species name, and because the genus contains at least one other medicinal species used for a different purpose, the botanical source on the label matters. See the notes section.
  • Pregnancy and nursing — no specific contraindication is recorded on our entry. In the absence of any safety data in pregnancy, and given the dose levels at which this herb is used, avoidance is the conventional precaution for a strongly draining, cold, toxin-resolving herb. (Precautionary; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (the recorded side effects and dosage ceiling, and the absence of a recorded pregnancy contraindication, as held on file); published materia medica consensus, cross-referenced against multiple online sources. Neutral reference disclosures, not usage instructions.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Is Shi Shang Bai toxic?

  Shi Shang Bai is not classified as a toxic herb, and no toxicity is recorded on our own entry. The reasons for care with it are the adverse effects noted above at sustained high dose, and the drug-interaction question raised by its laboratory profile — not an intrinsic poison.

  Two preclinical observations belong on file for a herb dosed at up to 60 g. First, pharmacokinetic work in rats found that the characteristic biflavonoids are rapidly absorbed and distributed, concentrating mainly in the lungs, kidneys and ovaries, with no evidence of long-term accumulation, and with about 30% of an administered dose excreted mainly by the intestinal route within 48 hours. Second, the same extract binds to human serum albumin at a single site — relevant to how it behaves alongside other highly protein-bound substances rather than to toxicity as such. Both are animal and in-vitro findings about a concentrated extract, not clinical toxicity reports on the dispensed herb, and no case literature of harm from ordinary use was found.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (no recorded toxicity classification for this herb, as held on file); PMID 35571075, PMC 9099209, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2022.849110 (tissue distribution, excretion and human serum albumin binding of the total bioflavonoid extract, rat and in-vitro study); PMID 29101819, DOI 10.1016/j.jpba.2017.10.028 (comparative pharmacokinetics of five biflavonoids in rat plasma). Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does Shi Shang Bai interact with medications?

  No clinical herb–drug interaction has been documented in people, but this herb has one of the clearer laboratory interaction signals in the materia medica, and it deserves stating. A cocktail assay of seven human cytochrome P450 isoforms found that the ethyl acetate extract of Selaginella doederleinii strongly inhibited CYP2C9 and CYP2C8 (half-maximal inhibitory concentration around 1 µg/mL) and moderately inhibited CYP2C19, CYP2E1 and CYP3A. The effect tracked mainly to amentoflavone, the most abundant biflavonoid in the extract, which also showed time-dependent inhibition of CYP2C19 and CYP2D6. The authors’ own conclusion was that potential herb–drug interaction should be considered when this herb or amentoflavone is used with other clinical drugs.

  • Why this matters — CYP3A and the CYP2C family between them handle a very large share of prescription medicines, including many chemotherapy agents, anticoagulants and antiepileptics. Given that this herb is most often used by people who are also receiving conventional cancer treatment, that overlap is the practical point.
  • What the finding is and is not — it is an in-vitro enzyme assay of a concentrated extract, not a human pharmacokinetic study, and inhibition in a test tube does not automatically translate to a clinically meaningful interaction at decoction doses. No human interaction study exists.
  • Protein binding — the same extract binds human serum albumin at a single site through hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding, which is a second, weaker theoretical route to displacement interactions with highly protein-bound drugs.
  • Practical position — anyone taking prescription medication, and in particular anyone under oncology care, should have this herb reviewed by their prescriber and their practitioner together. (Precautionary; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

  Sources: PMID 36874034, PMC 9975586, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2023.1108867 (inhibitory effect of the ethyl acetate extract and four constituents on seven human CYP450 isoforms); PMID 35571075, PMC 9099209, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2022.849110 (human serum albumin binding of the total bioflavonoid extract). 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 Shi Shang Bai (Selaginella doederleinii)?

  Yes — a substantial and still-growing anticancer literature, and it is almost entirely preclinical. Dozens of laboratory papers report antitumour activity for extracts and isolated biflavonoids of this plant in cancer cell lines and tumour-bearing mice, concentrated on nasopharyngeal, throat and lung cancers. No controlled clinical trial in people could be identified, and nothing here establishes a treatment for any disease. The honest position is the same one this site takes on Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian: a large volume of publication is not the same as strength of evidence.

  • Chemistry — the defining constituents are biflavonoids: amentoflavone, delicaflavone, robustaflavone, 2″,3″-dihydro-3′,3‴-biapigenin and 3′,3‴-binaringenin, alongside other flavonoids and a volatile oil. Novel compounds have continued to be isolated from the plant (the seladoeflavones and selagintriflavonoids among them), and the total biflavonoid extract has been characterised by high-resolution mass spectrometry and prepared by counter-current chromatography.
  • Nasopharyngeal and throat models — closest to the traditional use — ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts inhibit proliferation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines, with reactive-oxygen-species-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction reported as a mechanism; a biflavonoid-rich extract has been studied against throat carcinoma through Akt/Bad and IKKβ/NF-κB/COX-2 pathways; and a combined network-pharmacology and multi-omics study has modelled a multi-target mechanism in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. All cell and animal work.
  • Lung and colorectal models — the ethyl acetate extract inhibits growth of A549 lung cancer cells by a caspase-dependent apoptotic route and induces autophagic death and apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells via PI3K–Akt–mTOR and AMPKα signalling; biflavonoids from the plant have been evaluated as candidate agents in non-small-cell lung cancer, and the targets of the total biflavonoid extract in that setting have been mapped computationally and experimentally (note that this last paper carries a published corrigendum). Delicaflavone, one of the isolated biflavonoids, has been studied on its own in colorectal and cervical cancer cell models.
  • In-vivo work exists but is in mice — the total biflavonoid extract and the ethyl acetate extract have both been assessed in vitro and in tumour-bearing animals, and extracellular-vesicle-like particles derived from the plant have been reported to suppress lung cancer in a model with ferroptosis-associated changes. Animal models of implanted tumours are a long way from clinical benefit.
  • Other directions — antioxidant and antiproliferative activity of the flavonoid fraction; antidiabetic and antigout activity of the total biflavonoids in vitro and in silico; lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors identified by rapid screening; and BACE1-inhibitory selagintriflavonoids, an Alzheimer’s-relevant target. Screening-level findings.
  • Pharmacokinetics and interactions — unusually for a minor herb, its absorption, distribution and excretion have been characterised in rats, and its inhibition of human cytochrome P450 enzymes has been measured directly. These are the most practically useful papers in the whole set; see the interactions section.
  • Quality of the literature — the corpus is dominated by cell-line experiments and network-pharmacology modelling from a small number of groups, and at least one paper on an isolated constituent has been retracted. Read accordingly.

  Honest summary: Shi Shang Bai has a real, coherent preclinical case — distinctive chemistry, consistent activity in the very tumour types it is traditionally prescribed for, and proper pharmacokinetic characterisation. What it does not have is a single controlled human trial. It is a traditional heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herb and a legitimate subject of laboratory investigation. It is not a demonstrated treatment for cancer or for anything else.

  Sources: PMID 27889540, DOI 10.1016/j.fitote.2016.11.014 (seladoeflavones A–F); PMID 27889245, DOI 10.1016/j.phytochem.2016.11.011 (selagintriflavonoids with BACE1 inhibitory activity); PMID 28230759, PMC 6155910, DOI 10.3390/molecules22020325 (total biflavonoid extract by HPLC-QTOF-MS with in-vitro and in-vivo anticancer effects); PMID 24115163, DOI 10.1002/pca.2478 (preparative isolation of six biflavonoids); PMID 24311875, PMC 3847390, DOI 10.4314/ajtcam.v10i6.17 (nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-1 and C666-1 cells); PMID 21924341, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2011.08.072 (ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in CNE cells); PMID 36558956, PMC 9785591, DOI 10.3390/ph15121505 (biflavonoid-rich extract against throat carcinoma); PMID 39747499, PMC 11695685, DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-83921-3 (network pharmacology and multi-omics in nasopharyngeal carcinoma); PMID 27292193, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2016.06.029 (A549 lung cancer cells, caspase-dependent apoptosis); PMID 33192508, PMC 7604386, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2020.565090 (colorectal cancer, autophagic death and apoptosis); PMID 34500834, PMC 8434134, DOI 10.3390/molecules26175401 (biflavonoids in non-small-cell lung cancer); PMID 34793885, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2021.114836 with corrigendum PMID 36997372, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2023.116441 (targets and mechanisms of the total bioflavonoids in non-small-cell lung cancer); PMID 31669234, DOI 10.1016/j.bcp.2019.113680 and PMID 31177019, DOI 10.1016/j.phymed.2019.152973 (delicaflavone in colorectal and cervical cancer cell models); PMID 25866543, PMC 4381860, DOI 10.1155/2015/865714 (antitumour activity of ethyl acetate extracts in vitro and in vivo); PMID 42294275, PMC 13259658, DOI 10.3389/fonc.2026.1829211 (plant-derived extracellular-vesicle-like particles in a lung cancer model); PMID 35740086, PMC 9229023, DOI 10.3390/antiox11061189 (flavonoids, antioxidant and antiproliferative activity); PMID 39456438, PMC 11504096, DOI 10.3390/antiox13101184 (antidiabetic and antigout properties of total biflavonoids); PMID 36042169, DOI 10.31083/j.fbl2708229 (lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors); PMID 35255433, DOI 10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123284 (acetylcholinesterase inhibitor screening); PMID 35571075, PMC 9099209, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2022.849110 (tissue distribution and excretion); PMID 36874034, PMC 9975586, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2023.1108867 (human CYP450 inhibition). Research context, not a therapeutic claim. Cell and animal findings do not establish clinical benefit in people.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What kind of plant is Shi Shang Bai — a fern or a moss?

  Neither. Selaginella doederleinii is a spikemoss, a lycophyte — a member of the oldest surviving lineage of vascular plants, older than the ferns and unrelated to true mosses. The confusion is understandable: it is small, scaly and moss-like in appearance, and it grows in the damp, shaded, rocky places one associates with both mosses and ferns. But mosses are non-vascular, ferns are a separate group, and the lycophytes diverged from the rest of the vascular plants before either. Botanical papers on this species describe it explicitly as a lycophyte, and it appears in reviews of medicinal pteridophytes (ferns and fern allies) under exactly that heading.

  • Lycophyte, not moss — it has true vascular tissue, roots and a dominant sporophyte generation, none of which mosses have. The common English name “spikemoss” is a description of appearance, not of relationship.
  • Lycophyte, not fern — the lycophytes are sister to all other vascular plants; the ferns belong to the other branch. In practice this means the genus is a genuinely ancient lineage, and its chemistry — dominated by biflavonoids, two flavonoid units joined together — is characteristic of that lineage rather than of flowering plants.
  • Why it matters practically — the biflavonoids are what almost all the modern research on this herb is about, and they are the reason the plant has a distinct pharmacological profile from the flowering-plant heat-clearing herbs it is usually prescribed alongside.

  Is Shi Shang Bai the same as Juan Bai?

  No. Juan Bai is Selaginella tamariscina, a different species in the same genus, with a different traditional use. Both are Selaginella, both are spikemosses, and the shared syllable bai (“cypress”) in the two names reflects the same conifer-like appearance — but they are dispensed for different things. Shi Shang Bai is a heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herb; Juan Bai is classically used in the blood-regulating group, raw to invigorate blood and charred to stop bleeding. This site does not currently hold a Juan Bai entry, so no comparison of its recorded properties is made here. If a supplier substitutes one for the other, the substitution changes the category of the herb, not merely its strength — a point worth making explicitly, because both are sold simply as “Selaginella” in English.

  How does Shi Shang Bai relate to Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian?

  The three are the standard trio of heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herbs used together in Chinese oncology practice, and they are frequently studied together as well. They share a category, a large-dose habit, a low-toxicity profile and a common role as additions to a base formula rather than as the formula’s centre. They are not the same herb and are not interchangeable.

  • Shi Shang Bai (this page) — a lycophyte; Liver channel; 15–30 g rising to 60 g; damp-heat of the liver and bladder, sore throat, Lung-heat cough. Its research literature centres on nasopharyngeal, throat and lung models.
  • Bai Hua She She Cao — a small flowering plant of the madder family; Liver, Stomach and Large Intestine; 15–60 g; toxic sores, intestinal abscess, jaundice, hot painful urination. Its research literature centres on digestive-tract models.
  • Ban Zhi Lian — a mint-family skullcap; Large Intestine, Liver, Lung and Stomach; 15–60 g; toxic sores and snakebite, with a blood-invigorating action the other two lack.

  Formula context: our own formula records do not currently link Shi Shang Bai to any formula, and it is not linked to any herb combination in our records, so none is named here. Its use is as an addition to existing prescriptions rather than as a named ingredient of a classical formula.

  Identity fields flagged, not corrected — two points for owner decision. (1) The stored nature-and-flavour string for this entry reads “Sweet, Spicy, Neutral, Bitter, Cold”, which combines two mutually exclusive thermal characters (neutral and cold) in one line. This has the appearance of two different source traditions’ descriptions concatenated rather than reconciled — reference sources variously give the herb as sweet, bland and neutral, or as bitter and cold. Both readings are defensible; carrying both at once is not. We have left the field exactly as held. (2) Our record carries no Chinese characters for this entry. Because “Selaginella” in English does not distinguish this species from Selaginella tamariscina (Juan Bai), the characters are the field that would settle the identification, and their absence is worth closing. Both are owner decisions; neither field has been rewritten here.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (the identity, category, channel, dosage and indication records for Shi Shang Bai, Bai Hua She She Cao and Ban Zhi Lian, and the absence of a Juan Bai entry and of any formula or combination link for this herb, as held on file); PMID 29966504, DOI 10.1080/09168451.2018.1491285 (this species described as a lycophyte); PMID 29405039, PMC 5833325, DOI 10.1631/jzus.B1600344 (review of medicinal pteridophytes, treating Selaginella as a lycophyte within the fern allies); PMID 27889245, DOI 10.1016/j.phytochem.2016.11.011 (biflavonoid chemistry of the species); published materia medica consensus, cross-referenced against multiple online sources. Disambiguation note, not treatment advice.