Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Qing Hao Bie Jia Tang is a Chinese herbal formula. Five herbs are boiled together into a tea. It is also called Sweet Wormwood and Soft-Shelled Turtle Shell Decoction.
In Chinese medicine it is used for a low fever that comes back in the evening or at night. The old texts tie it to heat left over at the end of a long illness. Night sweats and a dry mouth are part of the same picture.
Our library lists this as a single drug entry (TCM formula). It is not one plant but one named mix, used and sold as a unit.
Human trial proof is thin. Long use in one tradition is not the same as proof that a remedy works, and we say so here once rather than in every section. We grade the evidence as insufficient.
No one has shown clearly how this formula acts in the body. The old texts give their own picture in their own words.
In that picture, Bie Jia (turtle shell) reaches deep to draw hidden heat up. Qing Hao (sweet wormwood) then carries that heat out through the skin. The other three herbs are said to cool the blood and moisten dryness.
Lab and animal work shows that some of these plants can lower fever and slow germs in a dish. That work does not tell us what the whole tea does in a person. Treat the old language as a map of use, not as biology.
The classic form is a decoction. You simmer the raw herbs in water and drink the strained liquid.
Many people now use granules. These are dried water extracts that you stir into hot water.
Pills, capsules and ready-made liquids are also sold. Strength varies a lot between brands, so read the label each time.
Some makers now leave the turtle shell out or swap it for a plant substitute. Check the label if you avoid animal products. Buy only from sellers who name the source of any turtle shell.
The formula comes from the Wen Bing Tiao Bian, a Chinese text of 1798 by Wu Ju-tong. That book belongs to the warm disease school, which dealt with fevers.
It has stayed in use for more than two hundred years. It is taught in Chinese medicine schools today and appears in standard formula books.
That gives it a solid place in one tradition. It does not give it trial proof.
See a doctor now if your fever goes above 39C (102F), or if any fever lasts more than three days.
Get urgent help for a fever with a stiff neck, a rash that does not fade when pressed, confusion, or trouble breathing.
Book an appointment if you have night sweats with weight loss, a cough that will not clear, or lumps you can feel. These need tests, not herbs.
Stop the formula and call your doctor if you notice yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, deep tiredness, unusual bruising, or bleeding that will not stop.
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 Qing Hao Bie Jia Tang 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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