Zi He Che (Human Placenta)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Is Zi He Che (human placenta) safe, and why is it restricted today?

  Zi He Che is prepared from human placental tissue, and its use raises serious, well-documented ethical and safety concerns. It was excluded from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia in its 2015 edition, and the underlying trade in human placenta has been formally banned in China since 2005. This page documents Zi He Che for historical and reference purposes only; it is not a sourcing or use recommendation, and no dosage information is given.

  • Ethical/sourcing concerns — classical practice required placenta from a healthy mother, with her consent, collected immediately postpartum; in practice, reporting has documented an illicit market involving unconsented collection from hospitals, medical waste, and funeral homes.
  • Bloodborne-disease risk — placental tissue from an unscreened or unknown source can carry hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, and other bloodborne pathogens; inadequate processing does not reliably eliminate this risk.
  • Legal status — removed from the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2015 edition); the sale of human tissue, including placenta, is prohibited in the United States under the National Organ Transplantation Act and regulated by the FDA (21 CFR Part 1271); many other jurisdictions similarly restrict or prohibit its trade.
  • Authenticity/adulteration — laboratory testing of market samples has found some products adulterated with starch fillers rather than genuine placental material (see Research).

  Source: Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2015 ed.) exclusion; Chinese Ministry of Health placenta-trade regulations (2005); reporting via South China Morning Post, CGTN, and The Star on illicit sourcing cases; US National Organ Transplantation Act and FDA 21 CFR Part 1271. Neutral reference/safety documentation, not medical or legal advice.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Classical materia medica does not record Zi He Che as an intrinsically toxic substance with a defined dose ceiling. The real-world danger is not pharmacological toxicity but disease transmission and contamination from an unscreened human-tissue source (see Cautions), plus a documented risk of allergic reaction to placental/hormonal proteins. Because legitimate, screened, quality-controlled supply is not available in most jurisdictions today, no safety profile can be responsibly established for currently circulating material.

  Source: materia medica consensus (no classical toxicity listing); bloodborne-pathogen and adulteration findings summarized in Cautions and Research. Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No established clinical herb–drug interactions are documented for Zi He Che. This reflects an absence of legitimate modern clinical use and controlled study, not a demonstration of safety — practitioner-level interaction data of the kind available for widely-used tonic herbs does not exist for this substance.

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 Zi He Che (Placenta Hominis)?

  Yes — limited, and it does not change the reference-only framing above. Existing studies are mostly small clinical trials from Korea using injectable “pharmacopuncture” extracts (a different preparation from the crude dried herb), animal research, and market-authentication work; results are mixed and none establish an efficacy or safety basis for use.

  • Authentication/adulteration — a 2018 laboratory study developed DNA, hormone (hCG/progesterone), and starch-detection tests for Placenta Hominis products and found market samples included starch-based adulterants alongside genuine material, underscoring the supply-chain integrity problem described in Cautions.
  • Hot flashes (randomized, placebo-controlled, negative result) — a trial of injected Hominis placenta extract (“pharmacopuncture”) in peri-/post-menopausal women (128 enrolled, 103 completed) found no statistically significant difference from saline injections in reducing hot-flash scores.
  • Facial spasm (uncontrolled case series) — a 32-patient clinical review of placental-extract pharmacopuncture combined with acupuncture reported symptom-score improvement; there was no control group, so the result cannot be attributed to the placental extract specifically.
  • Hair regrowth (animal) — a mouse study found topical Hominis placenta extract increased hair regrowth and follicle fibroblast growth factor-7 (FGF-7) expression; preclinical only.
  • Anemia (case reports) — two case reports describe hemoglobin/platelet improvement when Hominis Placenta and Cervi Cornus Colla (deer antler glue) were added to conventional treatment for otherwise intractable anemia; case-report-level evidence only.

  Taken together, the clinical evidence is preliminary, small-scale, and largely uses injectable extract preparations rather than the crude herb — it does not offset the ethical, legal, and safety concerns above.

  Sources: PMID 29946350 (authentication study, Chinese Medicine, 2018); PMC 9634366 (hot-flash RCT, Integrative Medicine Research, 2022); PMC 4331967 (facial spasm case series, Journal of Pharmacopuncture, 2013); PMID 27386946 (hair-regrowth animal study, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2016); PMC 2840555, DOI 10.2147/ijgm.s5253 (anemia case reports, International Journal of General Medicine, 2009). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What herbs are used instead of Zi He Che today, and where does it appear historically?

  Because Zi He Che is no longer an appropriate or legal source herb (see Cautions), practitioners substitute plant- and animal-based tonics matched to the specific action needed — none is a single one-to-one replacement, since Zi He Che's traditional reputation combined yang, essence, blood, and qi tonification in one substance.

  • Lu Rong (Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum, deer antler velvet) — the closest match for the Kidney-yang-and-essence side of its action; a strong yang/jing tonic used for yang deficiency with jing, blood, and marrow insufficiency.
  • He Shou Wu (Polygoni Multiflori Radix Preparata, prepared fo-ti) — for the essence/Liver-blood-nourishing side; a classical longevity and jing tonic, gentler and non-cloying.
  • Gou Qi Zi (Lycii Fructus, goji berry) — for the milder Liver/Kidney yin-and-blood-nourishing side, commonly paired with the herbs above in modern practice.

  Historical context: Zi He Che is recorded in Li Shizhen's 16th-century Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), and appears in the Sacred Lotus formula database as a component of Da Zao Wan (Great Creation Pill), a yin-and-essence-tonifying formula. (Historical/formula context, not treatment advice.)

  Source: materia medica cross-reference (Bensky / Chen & Chen tonify-yang and tonify-yin/blood chapters); Sacred Lotus formula link (Da Zao Wan); historical-text attribution per secondary TCM references.