Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Si Sheng Wan is an old Chinese herbal formula. The name means Four-Fresh Pill. It is one named formula made of four plants, not a single herb.
Healers gave it for bleeding that Chinese medicine calls "heat in the blood". That covers nosebleeds, coughing up blood, blood in vomit, and blood in the stool.
Long use in a tradition is not proof that a remedy works. We say this once here, and you will not see it repeated in every section below.
The short verdict: it is a well-known staple of Chinese herbal medicine, but human trial evidence is missing, so we cannot say it helps.
In Chinese medicine the four fresh plants are seen as cool or cold in nature. Cold herbs were thought to cool "hot" blood and stop it leaking from the vessels. That is a traditional idea, not a proven body process.
Lab tests on single herbs from the formula hint at effects on clotting. Biota leaf and mugwort leaf are the two most studied this way. What happens in a dish or in a rat may not happen in you.
No one has shown, in people, that the whole formula stops a bleed.
You will most often find it as a small pill or a dried powder.
Other forms are loose dried herbs for a tea, and a liquid extract. Some herbalists still mix the fresh leaves, but fresh stock is hard to get.
Most products on sale use dried herbs. The classic text asks for fresh ones. No study has checked whether dried and fresh forms act the same way.
Si Sheng Wan first appears in Furen Liangfang, a Chinese book on women's health from 1237.
It has stayed in use in China since then, and it is still taught and listed today. Herbalists use it for a short bleeding spell, not for long-term care.
It is a set formula with a fixed list of four herbs, which is why it is treated as one item here.
Some reactions to Si Sheng Wan need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
Call emergency services now if you vomit blood, cough up a lot of blood, pass black tarry stools, feel faint, or your heart races. These can mean a fast, heavy bleed inside the body.
See a doctor the same day if you cough up any blood, see blood in your stool or urine, or a nosebleed will not stop after 20 minutes of firm pressure.
Stop the formula and get help if you get a rash, swelling of the lips or face, trouble breathing, or a fit. Book a routine visit if bleeding keeps coming back, or if your periods are heavy enough to leave you tired and pale.
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 Si Sheng Wan 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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