Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Track Hai Tong Pi with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
Hai Tong Pi is the dried bark of the coral bean tree. It is also sold as Coral Bean Bark. It is a single herb from Chinese medicine, not a blend.
It is used most often for stiff, aching joints and a sore low back. It is also used on the skin for itch and ringworm. In Chinese terms it is said to "dispel wind-damp", which means it is used for pain that flares in cold, damp weather.
Human trial evidence is close to nil. Long use in a tradition is not proof that a herb works, and that is the case here. Read the safety notes below before you try it.
The honest answer is that no one has shown how it works in people.
Lab work points to plant chemicals in the bark that may calm swelling and dull pain. Some of these same chemicals act where nerve meets muscle in animal tests. That is why this herb needs care, not why it is thought to help.
None of this has been checked in a human trial. Treat it as a lead, not a fact.
Most often you meet it as dried bark strips, boiled into a herb tea. Chinese herbalists nearly always add it to a formula with other herbs. It is rarely used on its own.
It also comes as granules, a loose powder, or a tincture (an alcohol extract). Some shops sell it as a wash or a soak for the skin. It is not a food and is not eaten raw.
Chinese herb books have named Hai Tong Pi since the Tang era, about the 8th century. It has stayed a steady, if minor, part of Chinese joint-pain formulas ever since.
The tree, Erythrina variegata, grows in south China and south east Asia. Healers in India and the Pacific islands use bark from close cousins of this tree for much the same aches.
Stop the herb and see a doctor if you get muscle weakness, heavy limbs, drooping eyelids, or trouble swallowing. Also see a doctor if your stomach is upset for more than a few days, if your skin flares where you used a wash, or if your joint pain gets worse rather than better.
Get emergency help at once for trouble breathing, a swollen face, lips or tongue, or a sudden widespread rash.
Joint pain with fever, a hot swollen joint, or new numbness needs a doctor now, not a herb.
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 Hai Tong Pi 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.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
