Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Xian He Cao is the dried above-ground part of Agrimonia pilosa, a small flowering plant in the rose family. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is a single herb, used mainly to slow or stop minor bleeding, to firm up loose stools, and as a mild tonic for tiredness.
What does the evidence say? Human trial evidence is thin. Almost all of the research is laboratory and animal work, so we cannot say it treats any condition in people.
Tradition and proof are two different things. A long record of use in Chinese medicine tells you that generations of practitioners valued this herb; it does not tell you that it works, and this is the only place in this document we will say so.
You will most often meet it as a dried herb for decoction (a strong simmered tea), inside a multi-herb Chinese formula, or as a tincture or capsule sold in the West.
The honest answer is that nobody has shown how it works in people.
Lab studies point to tannins, which are astringent plant compounds that make tissue contract and can tighten the surface of the gut and small broken blood vessels. That is the usual explanation offered for its traditional use in bleeding and diarrhoea.
Animal and test-tube work also reports shorter blood-clotting times, lower blood sugar and some antibacterial activity. None of this has been confirmed in human trials, so treat it as a hypothesis rather than a fact.
Common forms:
Dried cut herb, simmered into a decoction (a strong tea made by boiling the herb).
Granules or powdered extract that dissolve in hot water.
One ingredient inside a larger prescribed Chinese formula.
Tincture (an alcohol extract) or capsules, mostly in Western herbal shops.
Occasionally a wash or compress applied to the skin.
Xian He Cao means "immortal crane herb", from a Chinese folk story about a crane bringing the plant to exhausted travellers. It is also called Long Ya Cao.
It appears in Chinese herbal literature from the Ming and Qing periods onward and remains a standard hemostatic (bleeding-slowing) herb in modern Chinese practice.
Related Agrimonia species have a separate history in European folk medicine for sore throats and diarrhoea, but that is a different tradition using a different plant.
Get urgent medical help if you vomit blood, pass black tarry stools, bleed heavily and cannot stop it, or feel faint, breathless or very weak.
Call a doctor the same day if you have signs of low blood sugar such as shaking, sweating, confusion or a pounding heart, or if you have diarrhoea with fever, blood, or signs of dehydration (dry mouth, little urine, dizziness).
Make a routine appointment if bleeding, loose stools or tiredness has not improved after two weeks, if a rash or itching starts after taking it, or before you combine it with any prescription medicine.
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 Xian He Cao 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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