Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Shi Shang Bai is a dried herb used in Chinese medicine. It is given for hot, swollen or infected problems. The old phrase for this use is "clear heat and resolve toxin".
The herb is the whole dried plant of a small fern-like spikemoss. Its botanical name is Selaginella doederleinii.
It is a single herb, not a mixed formula. In China it is best known as an add-on to hospital cancer care. It is not mainly a folk tea.
Most claims for it come from lab dishes, animals and small hospital reports from southern China. Its traditional use is real and goes back a long way. But good human trial evidence is thin.
So nothing here is proof that it treats any disease. Long use and clinical proof are two different things. This page reports both, and keeps them apart.
You can buy it as dried cut herb for decoction (a water brew that is simmered for a long time). In China it is also sold as extract tablets. It is not a food, not a vitamin, and not a stand-in for cancer care, antibiotics or antiviral drugs.
No one has shown how Shi Shang Bai works in people. That is the plain answer.
In tradition it is used for "heat toxin". This pattern covers sore throats, hot swellings and infected skin. It names a use pattern, not a body process.
In the lab, extracts slow the growth of some cancer cell lines. They also lower some signs of inflammation (swelling) in test tubes and in mice.
Effects in a dish often do not carry over into the human body. Here they have not been backed up by well-run human trials.
Common forms include:
Dried cut whole plant, for decoction. This is the old form. It usually needs long simmering.
Extract tablets or capsules made in China. These are often labelled as a Selaginella doederleinii product.
Granules or strong powders that you stir into hot water.
Part of a multi-herb formula written for you by a trained practitioner.
Quality control is patchy outside regulated pharmacies. Buy only from a supplier that tests for heavy metals and pesticides.
Shi Shang Bai has been used in southern China for many years. It is best known in Guangdong and Guangxi. The name means about "cypress on the rock", which tells you where it grows.
It shows up in regional herb records and in provincial medicine standards. It is not in the oldest classic texts. So it counts as a known regional herb, not a nationwide staple.
From the 1970s, Chinese hospitals began to give extracts alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This was mainly for lung cancer and for nasopharyngeal (upper throat) cancer.
See a doctor promptly if your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow, your urine turns dark, your stools go pale, or you have ongoing nausea or pain under your right ribs. These can be signs of liver trouble, so stop the herb first.
Get urgent care for a sore throat with high fever, drooling, or trouble breathing or swallowing, and for any skin infection that is spreading, streaking or making you feel unwell.
Tell your doctor or pharmacist that you are taking this herb before any surgery, and before starting any new prescription. If you have cancer, tell your oncology team before you take the first dose, not after.
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 Shi Shang Bai 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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