Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Bofu is the dried root of a plant named Saposhnikovia divaricata. It is a single drug in Kampo, the old herb medicine of Japan. Healers used it for chills, fever, body aches and itchy skin rashes.
In Kampo it is said to "dispel wind" and to act as an antipyretic (a fever-lowering herb). Bofu is rarely taken on its own. Most often it is one part of a mixed formula, such as Bofutsushosan.
The proof is thin. We could not find human trials of Bofu by itself. Long use in a tradition is not proof that a herb works, and that point is not repeated below.
The honest answer is that no one knows. Lab tests show the root holds chromones and coumarins, two groups of plant compounds. In dishes and in mice, these seem to damp down swelling and pain signals.
That work does not prove the same thing happens in your body. Doses used in the lab are often far higher than a tea.
In Kampo terms, "wind" covers signs that come on fast or move around. Chills, fever, aches and shifting rashes all fit that old idea. It is a way of sorting symptoms, not a test of how the herb acts.
Dried sliced root, boiled into a tea (a decoction).
Granules or dry powder made from an extract. This is the usual Kampo form in Japan, and Bofu is nearly always mixed with other herbs in it.
Capsules and tablets, sold mostly as part of blends.
Tinctures (alcohol extracts) are uncommon for this root.
Bofu has been used in China for roughly 2,000 years, under the name fangfeng. It appears in the Shennong Bencao Jing, an early Chinese herb text. Korean medicine uses it as well.
Japan took the root into Kampo, where it sits in well-known formulas for colds, aches and skin trouble.
See a doctor if a fever lasts more than three days, or goes above 39 C. Get help the same day for a bad headache with a stiff neck, trouble breathing, chest pain or a fast heartbeat.
Stop the herb and call your doctor if you bruise easily, bleed from the nose or gums, or see blood in your stool or urine. Also call if your skin or eyes turn yellow, your urine turns dark, or you feel sick and very tired. Get urgent help for swelling of the face, lips or throat, or for hives that spread fast.
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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