Zi Su Geng (Perilla Stalk)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Zi Su Geng?

  About 5–9 g in decoction, with published ranges running from roughly 4.5 g at the low end to about 10 g at the top. This reference's own record does not carry a dosage figure for the stalk, so the range given here is the published materia medica consensus rather than a site figure. It is a modest dose for a woody, low-potency plant part.

  • Compared with the leaf — Zi Su Ye is usually given in a similar or slightly smaller quantity but added late in the decoction, because its action depends on the volatile oil. The stalk carries far less volatile oil and needs no such handling; it goes in with the main body of the decoction.
  • Preparation — supplied as dried stem segments or slices, decocted in the ordinary way.
  • Food overlap — the plant is eaten as a vegetable and herb across East Asia, though the stem is the part least used in cooking; culinary exposure is mostly to the leaf.

  Source: published materia medica consensus (Bensky, 3rd ed.; Chen & Chen), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; this reference's own record carries no dosage figure for this herb. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Zi Su Geng? Is it safe in pregnancy?

  Zi Su Geng is one of the few herbs used deliberately during pregnancy — but "used in pregnancy" is not the same as "safe to self-prescribe in pregnancy." Its traditional role is to calm a restless fetus in a qi-stagnation pattern, and this reference's own record carries no caution against it. The tradition still treats pregnancy prescribing as practitioner work, and any herb taken during pregnancy should be supervised by a qualified practitioner and disclosed to the maternity team.

  • Warm and spicy herbs are used cautiously in yin deficiency and in heat patterns — the standard caution for the whole perilla group. Where there is heat with sweating, or a dry, depleted picture, a warm dispersing herb is not the right choice.
  • Match the pattern. Fetal restlessness attributed to blood deficiency, heat, or Kidney deficiency calls for a different approach entirely. The stalk addresses stagnant qi, not every unsettled pregnancy.
  • Symptoms in pregnancy need medical assessment. Abdominal pain, bleeding, or a change in fetal movement are matters for a doctor or midwife, promptly. This entry is reference information about a traditional herb, not guidance for self-treatment.
  • Allergy — perilla is a mint-family plant eaten widely in Japan and Korea, and allergic reactions to it, though uncommon, are documented; two cases of anaphylaxis to perilla seed have been reported in the allergy literature (PMID 16751022). Anyone with a known perilla or Lamiaceae allergy should avoid all parts of the plant.

  Source: this reference's own record (no cautions recorded) and its own Zi Su Ye record; category cautions per published materia medica consensus (Bensky, 3rd ed.; Chen & Chen), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; allergy report PMID 16751022 (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2006). Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• None recorded for the stalk. Perilla is classed in China among the plants of shared food and medicine origin, its leaves, stems and seeds all used as both (PMID 37538863, PMC 10394348), and no toxicity is reported for the stem at customary doses.

  One plant-level fact worth recording accurately, because it is often garbled. Perilla frutescens exists in several chemotypes distinguished by their principal volatile oil constituent. One of these, the perilla-ketone chemotype, produces a furan compound that is a documented lung toxin in grazing livestock — it was characterised in cattle poisoned by eating the wild plant (PMID 877573) and has since been used as an experimental model of pulmonary oedema in animals (PMID 3688648; PMID 6734583). This is a veterinary and agricultural problem, arising from large quantities of the fresh plant eaten by ruminants, and it concerns the leafy plant rather than the dried stem in a decoction; the cultivars grown for medicine and food are the perillaldehyde chemotype. It is included here as a neutral reference fact about the species, not as a warning about the herb.

  Source: PMID 37538863, PMC 10394348 (Chin Herb Med 2023, DOI 10.1016/j.chmed.2023.03.002); PMID 877573 (Science 1977, DOI 10.1126/science.877573); PMID 3688648 (Am Rev Respir Dis 1987); PMID 6734583 (Equine Vet J 1984). Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does Zi Su Geng interact with medications?

  No herb–drug interactions have been documented for perilla stalk. There are no clinical interaction reports and no pharmacokinetic studies on this part of the plant. Its principal identified polyphenol is rosmarinic acid, present in the stem at lower concentrations than in the leaf (PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040). Absence of documented interactions is not evidence of safety — it reflects how little the stem specifically has been studied.

  • Pregnancy is the setting where this matters most. Because the herb's characteristic use is during pregnancy, disclosure is more important than usual: anyone taking it should tell both their prescriber and their maternity team.
  • Patients taking prescription medication should tell their prescriber about any herbal formula they are using. Flagged for practitioner confirmation.

  Source: constituent profile per PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040 (Chem Cent J 2013); no interaction studies located in PubMed/PMC for this herb. Reference information only, 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 Zi Su Geng (perilla stalk, Perillae Caulis)?

  Yes, but almost all of it is chemical rather than clinical, and it exists mainly to show how the stem differs from the leaf and the fruit. Nothing published tests the herb's traditional use in pregnancy. The most directly relevant study established an HPLC method for rosmarinic acid across all three perilla medicinals and applied it to 37 market batches from eight regions of China and Hong Kong: the leaf typically carried the highest rosmarinic acid content, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry of the steam-distilled volatiles gave clearly different profiles for stem, leaf and fruit — nine identified compounds accounting for about 70% of the peak area in the stem, against seventeen in the leaf (PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040). That is the study which makes it defensible to treat the three parts as distinct materials.

  • Leaf versus stem, in detail — a combined transcriptomic and metabolomic profile of perilla stem and leaf found thousands of differentially expressed genes and 144 differentially accumulated metabolites, all showing tissue-specific patterns; notably, every one of the eight genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway was more highly expressed in the leaf than in the stem (PMID 39122229). Chemically, the stem is the plainer tissue — which is a reasonable match for a herb the tradition treats as the mildest of the three.
  • Part-by-part review — a Chinese-language review compares the active components of Perillae Folium, Perillae Fructus and Perillae Caulis directly, noting that the Chinese Pharmacopoeia lists them as three distinct medicinal parts precisely because the types and amounts of active constituents differ, and cataloguing over 350 reported compounds across the plant (PMID 38212016).
  • The species overall — broader reviews cover perilla's traditional uses, chemistry and pharmacology, including anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antidepressant activity reported in preclinical models (PMID 30597896, PMC 6337106; PMID 37538863, PMC 10394348). A separate comprehensive review covers the fruit, Perillae Fructus, including its toxicity and quality control (PMID 36481246). None of these is evidence for the stem in particular.

  Taken together: the modern literature confirms that perilla stem is chemically distinct from — and generally less concentrated than — perilla leaf, which is consistent with the tradition treating it as the gentler medicinal. There are no human trials of Zi Su Geng, and none of the above is a therapeutic claim.

  Sources: PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040 (Chem Cent J 2013, DOI 10.1186/1752-153X-7-61); PMID 39122229 (Gene 2024, DOI 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148828); PMID 38212016 (Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi 2023, DOI 10.19540/j.cnki.cjcmm.20230813.201); PMID 30597896, PMC 6337106 (Molecules 2018, DOI 10.3390/molecules24010102); PMID 37538863, PMC 10394348 (Chin Herb Med 2023, DOI 10.1016/j.chmed.2023.03.002); PMID 36481246 (J Ethnopharmacol 2023, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2022.116022). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What is the difference between Zi Su Geng, Zi Su Ye and Zi Su Zi?

  One plant, three medicinals, and they work in three different directions. Perilla frutescens is one of the small number of plants from which Chinese medicine keeps several parts as separate entries, and this reference holds all three. The leaf goes outward, the fruit goes downward, and the stalk simply moves things along.

  • Zi Su Ye (Perilla Leaf) — Perillae Folium; spicy, aromatic, warm; Lung and Spleen; filed under Warm, Spicy Herbs that Release the Exterior. Releases the exterior and disperses wind-cold, moves qi in the middle burner, and resolves fish- and crab-toxin. The only one of the three that genuinely induces sweating.
  • Zi Su Zi (Perilla Fruit / Seed) — Fructus Perillae Frutescentis; spicy, warm; Lung and Large Intestine; filed under Herbs that Relieve Coughing and Wheezing. Descends Lung qi and transforms phlegm, and moistens the intestines — for cough and wheeze with copious sputum, and for dry constipation in the elderly or depleted. It does not release the exterior.
  • Zi Su Geng (Perilla Stalk) — this herb; the stem; spicy, warm; Lung and Stomach. Regulates qi, opens the chest, and calms the fetus. The mildest of the three, with no independent exterior-releasing action and no strong descending action.

  The practical rule: leaf for a cold caught, fruit for a cough that will not settle, stalk for a pregnancy that feels stuck. Where the leaf would be too dispersing and the fruit too descending — which is exactly the situation in pregnancy — the stalk is what remains.

  Which formulas use Zi Su Geng?

  None of the formulas held in this reference list Zi Su Geng among their ingredients. Its siblings do: the leaf appears in six formulas here (including Xiang Su San, Xing Su San, Huo Xiang Zheng Qi San and Ban Xia Hou Po Tang) and the fruit in four (including Su Zi Jiang Qi Tang and San Zi Yang Qin Tang). That distribution is itself informative — the stalk is characteristically used as a modification added to a base prescription, or in small combinations for pregnancy, rather than as a named ingredient in the classical formulas. In published materia medica it is commonly paired with Sha Ren or Chen Pi for qi stagnation in pregnancy, and with Xiang Fu for chest and epigastric distension. (Traditional combination context, not treatment advice.)

  Identity note — the Chinese characters and the Latin name do not match the part. This reference records the Chinese as 紫苏根, which reads Zi Su Gen and means perilla root. The pinyin recorded here, Zi Su Geng, and the common name "Perilla Stalk" correspond instead to 紫苏梗 (梗, gěng, stalk or stem). The two characters differ by one component and are easily transposed. Separately, the Latin recorded here is Perillae Ramulus ("twig"), whereas the Chinese Pharmacopoeia name for the perilla stem medicinal is Perillae Caulis (PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040; PMID 38212016). Everything else in the record — the common name, the recorded actions, the comparison carried in this reference's own Zi Su Ye entry — describes the stem, so the substance intended is not in doubt. The identity fields are left unchanged pending owner confirmation and flagged here for the data-quality list.

  Category note. This reference files Zi Su Geng under Warm, Spicy Herbs that Release the Exterior, alongside the leaf. That is a family filing rather than a functional one: the stalk has no independent exterior-releasing action, as this reference's own Zi Su Ye record states. Published materia medica generally place the stem with the qi-regulating herbs. Noted so the category is not read as a claim about the herb's action; no field changed.

  Source: this reference's own records for Zi Su Geng, Zi Su Ye and Zi Su Zi (identity, properties, channels, categories, recorded actions) and a check of its own formula records; part nomenclature per PMID 23548079, PMC 3636040 and PMID 38212016; differentiation and combination pairs per published materia medica consensus (Bensky, 3rd ed.; Chen & Chen), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.