Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Keishibukuryogankayokuinin is a Japanese Kampo herbal formula. It is Keishibukuryogan (cinnamon and poria) with one extra herb, coix seed (yokuinin), added. In Japan it is used mainly for skin problems such as acne, rough or dull skin, and small warts, often in women who also have period pain.
It is on the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare list of 148 Kampo formulas approved for national health insurance. Doctors there prescribe it as a dried granule extract, most often under the product code TJ-125.
The honest verdict: this formula has a long and well-documented place in Japanese practice, but good human trials of it are very thin. Long use in a tradition is not the same as proof that it works, and that difference matters when you decide whether to try it.
Kampo explains this formula through the idea of oketsu, or "blood stasis" — a pattern of sluggish circulation linked to dark period blood, cramps, cold feet with a flushed face, and dull skin. The formula is said to move that stagnation and clear heat and damp from the skin.
That is a traditional model, not a tested biological one. Laboratory work on single herbs in the mix suggests mild effects on blood flow markers and on inflammation (swelling and irritation). None of this has been shown to explain what happens in a person taking the whole formula.
Coix seed is the addition that points the formula at the skin. It has a separate folk reputation in Japan for warts and rough skin. That reputation rests on tradition and small case reports, not on solid trials.
In Japan the usual form is a dried extract granule or fine powder, sold in single-dose sachets. This is what doctors prescribe and what most research uses.
Other forms you may meet:
Tablets or capsules of the same extract, sold over the counter.
Loose raw herbs to be simmered into a decoction (a strong tea), mainly in traditional pharmacies.
Chinese-made versions of the base formula Guizhi Fuling Wan, sold as pills. These lack the coix seed and are not the same product.
The base formula, Guizhi Fuling Wan, comes from the Chinese classic Jingui Yaolue, written around the third century. It was used for masses and blood stasis in women.
Japanese Kampo doctors adopted it and later added coix seed to aim it at the skin. The modern granule version was standardised in the twentieth century and approved for insurance cover in Japan in 1986.
Stop taking it and see a doctor the same day if your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow, your urine goes dark, or you feel deeply tired with no appetite. These can be signs of liver injury.
Get urgent help if you develop a dry cough with fever and shortness of breath.
See a doctor soon if you bruise or bleed more easily than usual, if a rash spreads, or if a skin growth changes, bleeds or grows quickly. Also see a doctor if period pain is getting worse, rather than treating it yourself.
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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