Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Bai Zhi is a dried root. It comes from a plant called Angelica dahurica. Chinese herb shops sell it in slices or as a powder.
Herbalists use it most often for a stuffy nose, sinus pain and a headache across the brow. It is also used for toothache and for sore, swollen skin. It is almost always mixed with other herbs, not taken alone.
Here is the short verdict. Bai Zhi has a long record of use, but good human trials of the single herb are hard to find. Long use is not proof that a herb works, and that point applies to every claim on this page.
No one has shown how Bai Zhi works in the human body. Lab and animal work gives us some clues, but clues are not proof.
In lab tests, parts of the root calm swelling and ease pain signals. Some of its compounds also kill germs in a dish. That does not tell us what happens after you drink a cup of the tea.
In Chinese medicine the herb is said to be warm and drying. It is used to open a blocked nose and to move pain out of the head and face. That is a way of sorting herbs by use, not a test of what they do inside you.
Bai Zhi is sold in a few plain forms.
Dried slices are the most common. You simmer them in water to make a strong tea, called a decoction.
You can also find ground powder, capsules, tinctures (a liquid made with alcohol) and ready-made pill blends. In China it turns up in many packaged nose and sinus formulas. Some skin creams and washes use it too.
Bai Zhi is an old, core herb in Chinese medicine. It is listed in the Shennong Bencao Jing, a herb text from roughly two thousand years ago.
It has stayed in daily use ever since, mostly in blends for the nose, head and face. It is also used in Korean and Japanese herb practice.
See a doctor if your sinus pain, fever or face swelling gets worse, or lasts more than a week. Get help the same day for a bad sunburn, blisters, a spreading rash, trouble breathing, or swelling of the lips or tongue. Get help the same day if your skin or eyes turn yellow, if you bruise or bleed easily, or if you pass dark urine. A headache that is sudden and very bad, or comes with a stiff neck or a change in vision, needs urgent care, not a herb.
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.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
