Xiong Dan (Bear Gallbladder)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the dosage of Xiong Dan (bear gallbladder)?

  No dosage is published on this page. Publishing a figure would imply that the substance is something a reader should obtain and measure out, and it is not: bears are protected under the international endangered-species trade convention, most supply comes from bile farming, and demand is what sustains that trade. A number here would serve no legitimate purpose and would do real-world harm.

  The situation is also genuinely different from the other restricted animal materials on this site. For tiger bone and rhinoceros horn there is no equivalent licensed drug. For bear bile there is: ursodeoxycholic acid is a licensed pharmaceutical, manufactured without any bear, and prescribed and dosed by clinicians for the liver and bile-duct conditions it is approved for. Anyone whose interest is the therapeutic effect is describing a prescription medicine, and that is a conversation for a doctor or pharmacist, not a herb page. Anyone whose interest is Chinese herbal practice has documented plant alternatives, described in the notes section below.

  Source: conservation and trade status of bears, and the licensed status of ursodeoxycholic acid, as set out in the actions, notes and research sections of this page. Reference statement only — deliberately no dosage figure.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Is bear bile legal, and what is the conservation and welfare situation?

  Several bear species are listed under the international endangered-species trade convention as threatened with extinction, and the welfare record of bile farming is one of the most thoroughly documented in the animal-derived materia medica. Legal status differs by country and by species, so anyone with a specific legal question should check their own jurisdiction rather than rely on a general statement — but the direction of travel is clear, bile farming has been actively campaigned against on ethical grounds, and it has been the subject of enforcement action: veterinary papers describe surgical treatment of Asiatic black bears rescued from illegal bile farming in Vietnam.

  • Scale and method. An estimated 17,000 bears were being farmed for bile across China and Southeast Asia at the time of a 2019 veterinary assessment, primarily for traditional medicine. Depending on the country, bile is extracted from living bears via transabdominal gallbladder fistulas, indwelling catheters or needle aspiration. Farming on this model was established in China in the 1980s.
  • What happens to the bears. The claim that bile extraction does no lasting harm does not survive the veterinary literature. Bile-extracted bears show the highest values and the widest variation in alanine transaminase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine and white cell count compared with farmed-but-not-extracted, zoo and free-ranging bears; the odds of raised total bilirubin were 7.3 times greater; abnormalities persisted up to 14 years after rescue; and bile-extracted bears had significantly shorter survival than farmed bears that had not been extracted. Separate case series document aortic aneurysm, dissection and rupture in six bile-farmed bears, chronic cholecystitis in formerly bile-farmed bears, and a pattern consistent with accelerated ageing.
  • Farming has not reliably displaced wild sourcing. Surveys of actual consumers in China found that most preferred to switch between bile types as illness worsened, and that a majority group disliked synthetic products; willingness to switch to wild-sourced bile was tied to believing it was legal. Earlier stated-preference work found a measurable demand for wild over farmed bile. Related survey work across wildlife medicinals found bear bile among the materials where consumers showed relatively high willingness to accept substitutes.
  • Products are not reliably what they say. A deep-sequencing audit of traditional medicine products detected DNA from Asiatic black bear and other protected species in samples where it was rarely declared on the packaging, and the authors framed the result as both a legality and a public-safety problem. Wildlife-forensic assays have since been developed specifically to detect bear DNA in bile and bile-derived products to support enforcement.
  • Classical cautions (historical record). Our own records note that it was not used in the absence of true heat, and that traditional sources treated it as incompatible with Han Fang Ji (Stephania) and Sheng Di Huang. Retained for completeness of the historical entry only.

  Sources: PMID 28807157, DOI 10.1016/bs.irn.2017.02.008 (convention listing; farming campaigned against on ethical grounds); PMID 31352899, PMC 6661835, DOI 10.1186/s12917-019-2006-6 (17,000 bears; extraction methods; laboratory abnormalities, 7.3-fold odds of raised bilirubin, persistence to 14 years, reduced survival); PMID 30212334, DOI 10.1638/2018-0018.1 (aortic aneurysm, dissection and rupture in six bile-farmed bears); PMID 35239687, PMC 8893648, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0264391 (chronic cholecystitis in formerly bile-farmed bears); PMID 37322151, PMC 10272202, DOI 10.1038/s41598-023-36447-z (formerly bile-farmed bears as a model of accelerated ageing); PMID 21900258, DOI 10.1136/vr.d4985 (bears rescued from illegal bile farming in Vietnam); PMID 19138420, PMC 2630947, DOI 10.1186/1746-4269-5-2 (farming established in China in the 1980s; over-consumption and endangerment); PMID 35098582, PMC 9320993, DOI 10.1111/cobi.13895 (consumer switching between wild, farmed and synthetic bile); PMID 21799733, PMC 3140486, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0021243 (stated preference for farmed vs wild bile); PMID 26930487, PMC 4773180, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0145901 (willingness to accept substitutes); PMID 22511890, PMC 3325194, DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002657 (undeclared Ursus thibetanus DNA in traditional medicine products); PMID 37797418, DOI 10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102935 (qPCR assay for bear DNA in bile and derived products); classical cautions as held on this site. Neutral reference facts.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Is bear bile toxic?

  Classical sources did not classify bear bile as a toxic substance, and the early review literature describes its pharmacological actions as carrying little toxicological side effect. That is a statement about the material’s pharmacology, and it should not be read as reassurance about anything sold under the name. The documented risks attached to this substance are legal, ecological and welfare risks, plus the substitution and mislabelling problem common to restricted animal medicinals — not a classical poisoning profile.

  The one toxicological point worth stating positively is that the constituent that matters, ursodeoxycholic acid, has been used as a licensed medicine for decades and has a defined clinical safety and monitoring profile set by prescribers — which is another reason the bear-derived material is redundant.

  Sources: PMID 19138420, PMC 2630947, DOI 10.1186/1746-4269-5-2 (wide range of pharmacological actions with little toxicological side effect; pure compounds used clinically for hepatic and biliary disorders for decades); PMID 22511890, PMC 3325194, DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002657 (undeclared species and safety concerns in traditional medicine products); classical record as held on this site. Reference statement only — not a safety assurance and not a dosing instruction.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does bear bile interact with medications?

  The question that actually matters here is a prescription-medicine question, not a herbal one. Because the active constituent of bear bile is ursodeoxycholic acid — a licensed drug — anything taken as bear bile overlaps pharmacologically with a medicine that patients may already be prescribed, and its interaction and monitoring profile belongs to the prescribing clinician and pharmacist, not to a materia medica page. We publish no herb–drug interaction guidance for a substance we do not consider usable. Anyone taking, or being offered, a bile-acid product of any kind should raise it with their doctor or pharmacist. (Reference statement; flagged for clinician confirmation.)

  Source: identification of ursodeoxycholic acid as the active component of bear bile and its licensed medical use per PMID 28807157, DOI 10.1016/bs.irn.2017.02.008; clinical use in primary biliary cholangitis per PMID 39216494, DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01303-5. Not medical advice.

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 Xiong Dan (bear bile)?

  Yes — and unusually for a restricted animal medicinal, a large part of it is real, mainstream pharmacology, because the active constituent became an ordinary drug. The literature falls into four groups: bile-acid pharmacology and clinical use, substitution and manufacturing, conservation and consumer research, and wildlife forensics. None of it is a reason to use bear-derived material; the third and fourth categories exist precisely because the trade continues.

  • Bile-acid pharmacology and clinical use — ursodeoxycholic acid is the long-established first-line therapy in primary biliary cholangitis, where treatment is associated with improved liver-transplant-free survival, and it is used in gallstone dissolution regimens, including a randomised study combining it with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Beyond that, UDCA and its taurine conjugate have been examined in inflammatory bowel disease, in bile-acid and fatty-acid handling in diet-induced obesity models, in cutaneous inflammation models, and in neurodegeneration, where tauroursodeoxycholic acid has its own review literature. A group working explicitly “from dried bear bile to molecular investigation” has published a systematic review of bile-acid effects on apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain, and a follow-on study in models of myocardial dysfunction — research framed from the outset as replacing the animal material with defined molecules.
  • Substitution and manufacturing — a 2017 review evaluated animal-bile, synthetic and herbal alternatives and proposed six plant species plus two phytochemicals as substitutes; engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been built as a green route to a substitute resource; whole-cell biotransformation in engineered Bacillus subtilis produces tauroursodeoxycholic acid at high level; and a 2025 review surveys UDCA biosynthesis and structural modification. Chinese-language work has also examined so-called cultured bear bile powder in cholestatic mouse models and in a chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia model, and has reviewed how the recorded efficacy of bear bile maps onto its components. All animal, cell or process research.
  • Conservation and consumer research — surveys of Chinese consumers on switching between wild, farmed and synthetic bile; a stated-preference study of demand for farmed versus wild bile; attitude surveys of Beijing citizens and students on bile extraction from living bears; community studies in Laos and Cambodia, the latter looking specifically at bear-bile use around maternal health; and a wider assessment of wildlife use in northern Laos. This is social-science work aimed at reducing demand.
  • Wildlife forensics — a sensitive qPCR assay detects bear DNA in bile and bile-derived products to support enforcement, and deep sequencing of traditional medicine products found Asiatic black bear DNA that was not declared on the packaging.

  Honest summary: the science supports a molecule, not a gallbladder. The clinical evidence base belongs to a synthetic, licensed, animal-free drug; the bear-derived material contributes nothing that the drug does not, and carries conservation, welfare, legal and authenticity problems that the drug does not.

  Sources: PMID 39216494, DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01303-5; PMID 30980847, DOI 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.001; PMID 37267215, PMC 10241503, DOI 10.1097/HC9.0000000000000179; PMID 38712398, PMC 11565012, DOI 10.5009/gnl230494; PMID 37226820, PMC 12285291, DOI 10.4166/kjg.2023.044; PMID 31509435, DOI 10.1152/ajpgi.00163.2019; PMID 31402868, PMC 6669341, DOI 10.3389/fphar.2019.00842; PMID 42139903, DOI 10.1016/j.prp.2026.156481; PMID 33636170, DOI 10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119252; PMID 34601012, DOI 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.09.021; PMID 37593199, PMC 10430170, DOI 10.1016/j.bbih.2023.100674; PMID 28807157, DOI 10.1016/bs.irn.2017.02.008; PMID 38647767, PMC 10992935, DOI 10.1186/s40643-022-00517-3; PMID 40999182, DOI 10.1007/s11274-025-04549-7; PMID 41376668, PMC 12687655, DOI 10.2147/DDDT.S557300; PMID 34763041, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2021.114829; PMID 32739790, DOI 10.1016/j.jchromb.2020.122269; PMID 26117036, DOI 10.7534/j.issn.1009-2137.2015.03.035; PMID 36164894, DOI 10.19540/j.cnki.cjcmm.20220527.601; PMID 25110425, PMC 4123376, DOI 10.3748/wjg.v20.i29.9952; PMID 35098582, PMC 9320993, DOI 10.1111/cobi.13895; PMID 21799733, PMC 3140486, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0021243; PMID 28541779, DOI 10.1080/10888705.2017.1283990; PMID 30808395, PMC 6390540, DOI 10.1186/s13002-019-0292-5; PMID 32448341, PMC 7245845, DOI 10.1186/s13002-020-00380-6; PMID 32326484, PMC 7222730, DOI 10.3390/ani10040685; PMID 26930487, PMC 4773180, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0145901; PMID 37797418, DOI 10.1016/j.fsigen.2023.102935; PMID 22511890, PMC 3325194, DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002657. Research context, not a therapeutic claim. Findings on a synthetic drug or on animal models do not establish clinical benefit for any animal-derived product.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What is used instead of bear bile?

  Uniquely among the restricted animal medicinals, bear bile has an exact legitimate substitute: ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), the compound identified as its active constituent, which is a licensed medicine in Western practice and is produced synthetically rather than from animals. Reviewers of the field state this plainly — UDCA in synthetic form can serve as an alternative to bear bile in the treatment and management of certain cholestatic liver conditions. There is nothing comparable for tiger bone or rhinoceros horn, where the claimed constituents have no licensed equivalent at all.

  Three separate substitution routes are documented in the published literature:

  • The pharmaceutical route — UDCA itself. It is the long-standing first-line drug therapy for primary biliary cholangitis, where long-term treatment is associated with better liver-transplant-free survival, and it is used in gallstone dissolution regimens for suitable cholesterol stones. Manufacturing is chemical and biotechnological: recent work covers its biosynthesis and structural modification, whole-cell biotransformation of taurochenodeoxycholic acid to tauroursodeoxycholic acid in engineered Bacillus subtilis, and engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae built specifically to produce a substitute resource for bear bile.
  • Other animal biles — within Chinese medicine, bile from ordinary domesticated species (cattle, chicken, pig) has long been used in place of bear bile. Our own reference holds a related unrestricted animal medicinal, Niu Huang (Calculus Bovis, ox gallstone), bitter, sweet and cool, entering the Heart and Liver channels.
  • Herbal alternatives — a 2017 review evaluated the evidence and proposed six plant species, singly or in combination, as alternatives to bear bile, together with two Kampo formulations derived from Huang Lian Jie Du Tang and two isolated phytochemicals (berberine and andrographolide). All six plants are held on this site: Zhi Zi (Gardenia jasminoides), Huang Qin (Scutellaria baicalensis), Huang Lian (Coptis chinensis), Huang Bai (Phellodendron), Chuan Xin Lian (Andrographis paniculata) and Da Huang (Rheum palmatum) — and Huang Lian Jie Du Tang itself is held in our formula reference. The reviewers note that these plants are frequently already listed in the same traditional prescriptions that contained bear bile, usually with a different therapeutic role assigned to them, and conclude that the evidence base is strong enough for practitioners and consumers to use them without the bear-derived ingredient.

  Do any formulas on this site contain bear gallbladder?

  No. We checked our own formula records: not one of the formulas held on this site lists Xiong Dan among its ingredients, so there is no formula to name here and nothing that needs reformulating. Nor is it linked to any herb combination in our records.

  What the substitution research does and does not show. That UDCA is a licensed drug for defined liver and bile-duct conditions is not the same as saying bear bile treats the wide list of classical indications above, and it is not a reason to seek out bear bile. Equally, the herbal alternatives were proposed on the basis of anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective evidence, much of it preclinical, not on the basis of head-to-head clinical trials against bear bile. We record the substitution literature because it is the documented reason the bear-derived material is unnecessary — not as a claim of efficacy for anything.

  Sources: PMID 28807157, DOI 10.1016/bs.irn.2017.02.008 (UDCA as the active component, used in synthetic form in Western medicine; bile from cattle, chicken and pig as traditional substitutes; the six proposed plant species, the Kampo formulations and the two phytochemicals); PMID 39216494, DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01303-5 and PMID 30980847, DOI 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.001 (UDCA in primary biliary cholangitis and transplant-free survival); PMID 38712398, PMC 11565012, DOI 10.5009/gnl230494 and PMID 37226820, PMC 12285291, DOI 10.4166/kjg.2023.044 (UDCA in gallstone dissolution); PMID 41376668, PMC 12687655, DOI 10.2147/DDDT.S557300 (pharmacological activities, biosynthesis and structural modification of UDCA); PMID 40999182, DOI 10.1007/s11274-025-04549-7 (whole-cell biotransformation to tauroursodeoxycholic acid); PMID 38647767, PMC 10992935, DOI 10.1186/s40643-022-00517-3 (engineered yeast producing a potential substitute resource for bear bile); PMID 25110425, PMC 4123376, DOI 10.3748/wjg.v20.i29.9952 (therapeutic uses of animal biles in Chinese medicine); our own herb and formula records for the six plants, Huang Lian Jie Du Tang and Niu Huang, and the absence of any formula link for this substance. Reference record, not a therapeutic claim.

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