Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Bupyeong is a tiny water plant that floats on ponds. Its Latin name is Spirodela polyrhiza. In English it is called duckweed.
Korean medicine uses the whole dried plant. It was given to make the body sweat and to make it pass more water. Healers used it for itchy rashes, for hives, and for the rash of measles.
Here is the short verdict. No human trials of Bupyeong have been published. Its standing comes from long use, and long use is not proof that a herb works.
The honest answer is that no one has shown how Bupyeong works in people.
Old texts say it opens the skin and brings out sweat. They also say it moves water out through the urine. These are ideas from tradition, not measured effects.
Lab work gives a few hints. The plant holds flavonoids (plant pigments that act as antioxidants). In test tubes, some of these calm cells that drive itching and swelling.
Test-tube results often do not carry over to people. Treat them as clues, not proof.
The dried whole plant is the usual form.
Most people take it as a tea. The dried herb is boiled in water, then strained.
Powders and capsules are sold too. Herb shops also put it inside mixed Korean and Chinese formulas.
It is sometimes used on the skin. The herb is steeped, cooled, and then dabbed on an itchy patch.
Bupyeong is an old and shared East Asian herb.
Korean books list it as Bupyeong. Chinese herb books call it Fu Ping and give it much the same uses. Japanese Kampo knows it too, though it is used less often.
It appears in the Korean classic Donguibogam of 1613. There it is mostly a herb for rashes, fevers without sweat, and puffy swelling.
See a doctor the same day if a rash spreads fast, blisters, or comes with a high fever. Get help straight away if your lips, tongue or face swell, or if you struggle to breathe.
See a doctor if swelling in your legs, face or belly is new, growing, or comes with breathlessness. Also go if you pass much less urine than usual, see blood in it, or feel pain when you go.
Stop the herb and get advice if you feel faint, very weak, or very thirsty. A child with a fever and a spreading rash needs a doctor, not a home remedy.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Bupyeong is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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