Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Agrimonia pilosa is a hairy herb with small yellow flowers. It grows across China, Korea, Japan and eastern Russia. The dried stems, leaves and flowers are the parts used.
In Chinese medicine it is called xian he cao. Herbalists there have long used it to slow minor bleeding and to firm up loose stools. It was also given as a tonic for tiredness.
A long history of use is not proof that a plant works. It is also not proof that it is safe. Both have to be tested on their own.
Here is the honest verdict. Human evidence for Agrimonia pilosa is very thin. Almost everything we know comes from test tubes and animals, not from good trials in people.
No one has shown how this herb acts in the human body. The ideas below come from lab and animal work only.
The plant is high in tannins. In test tubes, tannins bind to proteins and tighten the surface of tissue. That drying, binding action is the old reason given for its use against bleeding and loose stools.
In cell studies, extracts appear to slow the growth of some bacteria and viruses. In animals, extracts have lowered markers of inflammation (swelling and irritation). Whether either effect happens in a person who drinks the tea is unknown.
In diabetic animals, extracts have lowered blood sugar. One compound, agrimonolide, appears to act on sugar handling in cell studies. This has not been confirmed in people.
One purified compound, agrimophol, was studied in China in the past as a tapeworm treatment. That was a drug made from the plant. It does not tell you what the whole herb does.
You will mostly meet it as a dried, cut herb for making a decoction (a simmered tea).
Other forms include:
- Tea bags and loose dried herb. - Powders and capsules. - Liquid tinctures.
- Mixed Chinese patent formulas, where it is one herb among many. - A washing liquid for skin, used in some folk practice.
In Chinese hospitals, injectable preparations have been used to slow bleeding. These are prescription hospital products. They are not something to buy or use yourself.
Quality control in the supplement market is uneven. Labels may not state the plant part, the strength, or even the correct species.
The herb has been recorded in Chinese materia medica for centuries, with wide use from the Ming era onward. The name xian he cao means crane herb, after a folk story about the plant.
Classical texts grouped it with herbs that stop bleeding. It was given for nosebleeds, coughing of blood, blood in the stool and heavy periods. It was also used for long-running diarrhoea and dysentery.
A second use was as a pick-me-up for tiredness after illness. One folk name translates roughly as the herb that pulls you back up.
It also appears in Korean and Japanese folk practice, and in Russian far-eastern herbalism, in broadly similar roles. None of this records a tested effect. It records what people did.
Stop and see a doctor if:
- Bleeding does not stop, or returns. - You see blood in your stool, urine or vomit. - Diarrhoea lasts more than two days, or comes with fever. - You feel dizzy, very thirsty or pass little urine, which can mean dehydration. - Your blood sugar readings drop lower than usual. - Your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow.
Get emergency help for a rash with swelling of the face, lips or throat, or any trouble breathing.
In the United States it is sold as a dietary supplement. It is not approved to treat or prevent any disease. In China the dried herb is listed in the national pharmacopoeia as a herbal medicine. In the UK and EU it has no traditional herbal registration and is sold unlicensed.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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