What is Jiu Xiang Chong?

Jiu Xiang Chong is a Chinese medicine with one ingredient. It is the dried body of a stink bug, Aspongopus chinensis.

In traditional practice it is given for:

cold, aching pain in the upper belly

poor appetite with bloating

low back ache

low sexual energy in men

It is almost always cooked into a formula with other herbs. It is rarely used on its own.

The honest evidence picture is thin. We found no published human trials of this insect for any health problem. Its name rests on centuries of traditional use, not on proof from trials.

Long use tells you that people have trusted a remedy. It does not tell you the remedy works. That gap applies to everything on this page.

It is an insect product, so the main worries are allergy and quality. People allergic to shellfish, dust mites or other insects can react to it. Raw insect material can carry bacteria or mould if it is dried and stored badly.

How does Jiu Xiang Chong work?

In traditional Chinese medicine, Jiu Xiang Chong is called salty and warm. It is said to warm the kidney and support yang. Yang is the body's warming, active energy.

It is also said to move stagnant qi, which means blocked energy. Moving it is meant to ease pain and bloating.

These are traditional ideas, not measured actions in the body. Lab work has found that extracts fight bacteria and calm swelling. Some cell studies have looked at effects on tumour cell lines.

None of that work has moved on to tests in people. So we cannot tell you what it does, if anything, inside a person who takes it.

What forms does Jiu Xiang Chong come in?

You will usually meet it in one of these forms:

Dried whole insects, stir-fried or baked. These go into a decoction, which is a herb tea simmered by a practitioner.

Fine powder, taken by the small spoonful or packed into capsules.

An ingredient inside a multi-herb patent pill or granule.

A wine or spirit infusion, used in some local traditions.

It is not sold as a standard tablet or a measured extract. Many common Western supplements are sold that way. This one is not.

Where it comes from:

Jiu Xiang Chong is an old remedy. It appears in Li Shizhen's Ben Cao Gang Mu, the great Chinese herb book of 1596. It has been used in Chinese medicine ever since.

Its name means roughly "nine-fragrance insect". That is a wry joke about its smell.

People also eat it as food in southwest China. Several ethnic groups in Yunnan and Guizhou use it as a folk remedy. Its standing is real, but it belongs to one tradition rather than many.

What does Jiu Xiang Chong help with?

• Cold, cramping pain in the upper belly: This is its best-known traditional use, given when the pain eases with warmth and worsens with cold food. It is combined with warming, qi-moving herbs in a formula. No human trial has tested it for stomach pain, so there is no way to say whether it helps beyond the rest of the formula.
• Bloating and poor appetite: Tradition describes it as moving stuck qi (blocked energy) so that fullness and belching settle. Practitioners use it for long-standing digestive discomfort rather than a one-off upset. The evidence here is traditional only.
• Low back and knee ache described as cold and weak: Used as a kidney-yang warming agent for aching that feels better with heat and worse in cold, damp weather. It is a supporting herb in such formulas, not the main one. No clinical studies support this use.
• Low sexual energy and erectile difficulty in men: A long-standing traditional use, often in wine infusions or tonic formulas. There are no human trials, and it should not be treated as an alternative to medical assessment. Erectile difficulty can be an early sign of heart or blood vessel disease, so see a doctor about it.
• Period pain of the cold, cramping type: Some traditional texts include it for cramping period pain that eases with a hot water bottle. This is a minor and less consistent use, and no trials have examined it.

Which foods are rich in Jiu Xiang Chong?

1. Aspongopus stink bugs: eaten fried or roasted as a regional food in parts of Yunnan and Guizhou, China
2. Jumiles: related stink bug species eaten traditionally in central Mexico

Practical Tips:

Eating these insects as food carries the same allergy risk as taking the herb.

What are the side effects of Jiu Xiang Chong?

• Nausea or a churning stomach, partly from the strong smell and taste
• Belly discomfort or loose stools
• Itching, hives or rash
• Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat in an allergic reaction
• Wheezing or difficulty breathing in an allergic reaction
• Dry mouth, thirst or a hot, restless feeling if you already run hot
• Stomach upset from poorly dried or mouldy material

Good to know:

Most reported problems are mild digestive upset, and many people simply dislike the smell. The serious risk is allergy: this is an insect, and people allergic to shellfish, dust mites or other insects can cross-react, sometimes severely.

There is no systematic safety monitoring for this herb, so the true rate of side effects is unknown. Treat any rash, swelling or breathing change as a reason to stop at once.

How much Jiu Xiang Chong should you take?

• Recommended daily: No modern, tested dose exists. Traditional Chinese sources give 3 to 9 grams of the dried insect per day simmered in a decoction, or 0.6 to 1.2 grams of the powder taken once or twice daily. Those numbers come from classical practice, not from safety or dose-finding studies. Because it is an insect product with real allergy potential, it should only be used on the advice of a qualified practitioner who can source and check the material.
• Best time of day: Usually split into two doses, morning and evening. Decoctions are traditionally taken warm.
• With or without food: Traditionally taken shortly after food, which is also kinder to the stomach. Take it with a full glass of water.
• Time to effect: Traditional practice expects some easing of pain or bloating within days to a couple of weeks. There is no measured time to effect because no trials have been done.
• How long to take it: Traditional use is short-term, usually for a few weeks while symptoms are active, then stopped or reviewed. If your pain, bloating or back ache has not clearly improved within two to three weeks, stop and get the problem looked at properly. Ongoing belly pain needs a diagnosis, not a longer course of a herb.