Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Xue Yu Tan is a Chinese herb made from human hair. The hair is washed, then burned in a sealed pot until it turns into a black, crumbly char. It is used as a single herb, not a blend.
In Chinese medicine it is given to help slow or stop bleeding. Common uses are nosebleeds, blood in the urine, coughing up blood, and heavy periods. It is also dusted on small cuts and grazes.
Here is the short verdict on the evidence. We could find no human trials of Xue Yu Tan, so what it does in people is unknown. Long use in a tradition is not proof that a remedy works.
No one has shown how Xue Yu Tan works in the body. The ideas below are theories, not proven facts.
The char is mostly carbon, much like charcoal. A dry, grainy powder may help a small wound dry and crust over. Some lab and animal reports say the char makes blood clot faster, but that work has not been repeated in people.
Old Chinese texts call hair the "surplus of blood". In that system, the char is said to stop bleeding and clear "blood stasis" (blood thought to be stuck or stagnant). That is a traditional idea about the body, not a finding from modern biology.
Xue Yu Tan is sold as a black powder or as small charred pieces.
Herbalists use it in three main ways. It is boiled into a decoction (a strong tea made by boiling), stirred into water or wine as a loose powder, or pressed into pills. Some also dust the dry powder onto a small wound.
You may also meet it as one item inside a packaged Chinese formula. It is not sold as a standard supplement in most countries. Source and hygiene matter, since the raw material is human tissue.
Xue Yu Tan has been listed in Chinese drug books for well over a thousand years. Early records date to the Han and Six Dynasties period.
Classical texts group it with herbs that stop bleeding. Doctors used it for nosebleeds, blood in the urine, and bleeding after childbirth. It also appears in old formulas for painful, blocked urination.
It stayed in use through later Chinese medicine, often paired with other bleeding herbs rather than used alone.
Some reactions to Xue Yu Tan need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
Get emergency help now if you vomit blood, cough up blood, pass black tarry stools, or bleed heavily and cannot stop it. Also get help straight away if you feel faint, dizzy, clammy or short of breath while bleeding.
See a doctor within a day or two if you notice blood in your urine or stool, if a nosebleed keeps coming back, or if your periods soak through a pad or tampon every hour.
Stop taking it and check with a doctor if you get stomach pain, a rash, or if your bleeding does not settle in two or three days.
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 Xue Yu Tan 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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