Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Chou Wu Tong is the dried leaf of a shrub. In Latin the plant is Clerodendrum trichotomum. It is also called Harlequin Glorybower.
It is one herb, not a blend. You can take it on its own or in a formula. Chinese herbalists use it mainly for aching, stiff joints and for high blood pressure.
The name means "stinking paulownia". Fresh leaves smell strong when you crush them.
In old terms, the herb is said to "dispel wind-damp". That is the old label for joint and muscle pain that gets worse in cold, wet weather. It is often paired with the herb Xi Xian Cao.
Here is the honest verdict up front. This herb has a long record of use in China, Japan and Korea. But there is very little human trial evidence.
Long use and proof of effect are two different things. A long history does not show that a herb works.
Nothing here should replace the treatment your doctor has given you. That is true above all for blood pressure medicine.
No one has shown how Chou Wu Tong works in people. What follows is an idea drawn from lab and animal work. It is not proof from human results.
Leaf extracts have relaxed blood vessels in animals. They have also lowered blood pressure in animals. In animal tests of swelling, they cut the swelling too.
Some of the plant's compounds dull pain signals in rats and mice. We do not know if this happens at the dose a person drinks in a tea.
Chinese medicine explains it in another way. The leaf is called cool and a bit bitter. It is said to clear "wind-damp" from the channels and calm "liver yang".
That is pattern language. It describes signs, not body chemistry. It is a useful map for a practitioner, but it is not a test of whether the herb works.
Chou Wu Tong is nearly always taken as a decoction. That is a strong tea made by simmering the dried leaf. Other forms are less common.
Forms you may find: - Dried loose leaf, cut for simmering - Granules or "instant" extract powder that melts in hot water - Powdered leaf in capsules - Mixed formulas, most often with Xi Xian Cao, sold as tablets or granules - Liquid tinctures, mostly from Western herb suppliers
Old practice says not to boil the leaf for long when you use it for blood pressure. Long cooking is thought to weaken that effect. This is a rule of thumb, not something trials have shown.
Chou Wu Tong has been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. Qing dynasty herb texts list it. They use it for joint pain and for itchy skin rashes.
Later writing adds dizziness and headache linked to high blood pressure.
In the mid-1900s, Chinese hospitals studied it as a cheap treatment for high blood pressure. They nearly always gave it with Xi Xian Cao. Those reports spread widely, but they were not well-built trials by today's standards.
The plant also grows in Japan and Korea. In Japan the young leaves are called kusagi. People boil them and eat them as a wild spring green.
Folk use for aches and skin troubles is recorded there too.
See a doctor promptly if you faint, feel repeatedly dizzy on standing, or your home blood pressure readings drop much lower than usual.
Get urgent medical help if you have a sudden severe headache, chest pain, trouble breathing, or swelling of the face, lips or throat.
Stop the herb and book an appointment if you have vomiting that will not settle, your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow (jaundice, a sign of liver trouble), or you develop a spreading rash. Also see your doctor if joint pain or blood pressure is not improving after about four weeks.
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 Chou Wu Tong 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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