Zhu Ye
Quick Facts
- What it is: Zhu Ye is dried bamboo leaf, a single cooling herb used in Chinese medicine for fever, thirst and mouth sores.
- Main uses: Fever with thirst, Mouth and tongue sores, Restless feeling during illness, Burning or scanty urine
- Best for: Short term use as part of a Chinese herb blend for feverish illness
- Active ingredients: Flavonoids such as orientin and isoorientin, Triterpenes, Plant sugars, Silica
- Forms: Dried loose leaf for decoction, Granules, Pills, Liquid extract
- Time to effect: Traditionally within a day or two; no trial evidence confirms this.
- Side effects: Mild and few: more urine, loose stools, chilliness, rare rash.
Track this remedy in the app
Track Zhu Ye with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
What is Zhu Ye?
Zhu Ye is the dried leaf of bamboo. It is a single herb used in Chinese medicine as a cooling remedy. It is given for fever with thirst, a hot and restless feeling, mouth sores, and dark or scanty urine.
It is almost always mixed with other herbs rather than taken alone. The best known blend is Zhu Ye Shi Gao Tang, an old formula for fever with strong thirst.
The evidence here is weak. Zhu Ye has a long, well recorded place in Chinese medicine, but no human trials of the leaf on its own have been published. Long use is not proof that a herb works.
How does Zhu Ye work?
No one has shown how Zhu Ye acts in the body. In Chinese medicine it is said to clear heat from the heart and stomach, and to carry that heat out through the urine. That is a traditional idea, not a lab finding.
Lab tests show the leaf holds plant chemicals that can mop up free radicals (unstable particles that can harm cells). Some tests hint it may slow the growth of certain bacteria.
These tests were done in dishes and in animals. They do not tell us what the herb does in a person.
What forms does Zhu Ye come in?
You will most often find Zhu Ye as dried loose leaf. It is used to make a decoction (a strong tea made by simmering herbs in water). It also comes as granules that melt in hot water, and as ready made pills and liquid extracts.
Two different plants are sold under close names. Zhu Ye is the leaf of black bamboo. Dan Zhu Ye comes from a grass called Lophatherum gracile and is used for much the same thing.
Ask your supplier which plant you have. A trained practitioner usually picks the form and blends it with other herbs.
Where it comes from:
Bamboo leaf shows up in Chinese medical writing about two thousand years ago. It is named in the Shang Han Lun, an early book of fever formulas. It has stayed a common cooling herb in China, Japan and Korea ever since.
Who should avoid Zhu Ye?
- Do not use if you are pregnant. Chinese tradition treats strongly cooling, urine-pushing herbs as unsafe in pregnancy, and no safety testing has been done.
- Do not use if you are breastfeeding, because there is no safety information for the baby.
- Do not use if you take lithium (a mood medicine), as fluid loss can raise lithium in your blood to a dangerous level.
- Do not use if you have kidney disease, unless your doctor has checked the plan first.
- Do not use if you take water pills (diuretics) or medicine for blood pressure, unless your doctor agrees.
- Do not give it to a child under 12 unless a qualified practitioner has advised it.
- Do not use if you are allergic to bamboo or to grasses.
- Avoid it if you feel cold much of the time and have weak digestion with loose stools, as traditional practice says cooling herbs make this worse.
- Never use it in place of antibiotics or other treatment your doctor has prescribed.
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor if a fever goes above 39C (102F), lasts more than two days, or comes back after it settled. Get urgent help for fever with a stiff neck, a rash that does not fade when pressed, confusion, or trouble breathing. Also see a doctor if burning urine comes with back pain, blood in the urine, or shivering, or if a mouth sore lasts more than two weeks. Stop the herb and seek care straight away if you get a rash, swelling of the lips or face, or breathlessness.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
4.8
