Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Dokhwal is the dried root of a tall plant called Aralia cordata. Korean herbalists use it for sore joints, stiff backs and aching legs. It is a single drug, which means one plant, not a blend.
It is also called Japanese spikenard root. In Sasang medicine, a Korean system that sorts people into four body types, it is linked with the Soyangin type. In China the name Duhuo is often used for a different plant, so check the Latin name on the label.
The evidence grade is low. Korean use goes back a long way, but long use is not proof that a herb works. Human trials on this root are missing, so treat it as traditional, not proven.
No one has shown how Dokhwal works in people. Human studies are missing. The ideas below come from lab dishes and animal tests only.
Lab work shows the root holds compounds that can damp down swelling. Animal tests hint that it may ease pain. Those results do not tell us what will happen in a person.
Korean texts explain it in their own words. They say the root drives wind and damp out of the lower body. That is a traditional idea, not a lab finding.
Most Korean use is dried, sliced root boiled into a tea. It is nearly always one part of a mixed formula, not taken by itself.
You may also find powder, capsules or a liquid extract. Strength is not the same across brands. Check that the label says Aralia cordata.
Dokhwal has been used in Korea for hundreds of years. It appears in the classical Korean medical books of the 1600s and after. Healers gave it for aches that got worse in cold, wet weather.
In Sasang medicine it is tied to the Soyangin body type. It is still a common item in Korean herb shops today.
See a doctor if you bleed more easily than usual, bruise without a knock, or notice blood in your urine or stools. Get help the same day for a rash with swelling of the face, lips or tongue, or for trouble breathing. Also see a doctor if your joint or back pain is getting worse, wakes you at night, comes with fever or numbness, or has not shifted after 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 Dokhwal 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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