Bai Lian (Ampelopsis, Japanese Ampelopsis Root)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Bai Lian?

  Our reference record carries two ranges from two standard materia medica sources: 5–10 g in decoction (Chen & Chen) and 3–9 g in decoction (Bensky). These overlap and are best read as a single working band of roughly 3–10 g rather than as a conflict.

  • Part used — the dried tuberous root of the plant.
  • Topical preparation — for external use the root is customarily powdered and applied to the affected area, which is the form most of the traditional burn and sore indications refer to. Recorded here as reference, not instruction.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both cited dosage ranges as held); standard materia medica preparation notes (Bensky; Chen & Chen).

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Bai Lian? Is it one of the Eighteen Incompatibilities?

  Yes. Bai Lian is one of the classical Eighteen Incompatibilities (shi ba fan) herbs: it must not be combined with aconite — Wu Tou, meaning Chuan Wu, Cao Wu and Fu Zi. Our own incompatibility data holds all three of those pairings for Bai Lian, recorded as “this herb is incompatible with”, and no others.

  • Incompatible with the aconite group — Chuan Wu (prepared Sichuan aconite), Cao Wu (prepared wild aconite) and Fu Zi (prepared aconite lateral root). In the classical list, Bai Lian appears alongside Bai Ji, Ban Xia, Gua Lou (and its parts), Chuan Bei Mu, Zhe Bei Mu and Tian Hua Fen as the herbs held to conflict with Wu Tou — our library holds the same eight-plus-one grouping for all three aconites.
  • Yin-type abscesses — our record states it is not used for pale, flat yin-type abscesses; it is a cool, heat-clearing herb and is matched to hot, red, toxic presentations.
  • Weak Stomach qi — not used in patients with weak Stomach qi.
  • Pregnancy — our record carries no pregnancy contraindication for Bai Lian; we do not add one, and we note its absence rather than inferring it from the category.

  On what the Eighteen Incompatibilities are: shi ba fan is a classical list of herb pairs held to conflict or to amplify harm when combined in one prescription. It is a traditional rule of composition, transmitted through the materia medica literature, and it is followed in practice as such. We record it here because our library holds it as structured data for this herb, and because a reader checking whether Bai Lian can appear in an aconite-containing formula deserves a direct answer: by the classical rule, no.

  Source: Sacred Lotus cautions and herb-incompatibility records (Chuan Wu, Cao Wu and Fu Zi pairings held for Bai Lian; yin-type abscess and weak Stomach qi exclusions); classical eighteen-incompatibilities (shi ba fan) tradition as carried in standard materia medica (Bensky; Chen & Chen). Neutral reference facts, not usage instructions.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Low. Bai Lian is not classified as toxic in our properties record, and no significant intrinsic toxicity is reported for Ampelopsis japonica root in the traditional literature at customary doses. The animal studies summarised below used topical and oral extracts without reporting toxicity findings, and a 2025 systematic review of the herb notes that long-term toxicity is among the areas still requiring study — an honest statement of what has not yet been established rather than a finding of harm. The operative safety point for this herb is the classical aconite incompatibility described above, not intrinsic toxicity.

  Source: Sacred Lotus properties record; research summarised in PMID 41176139, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2025.120835. Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No well-established clinical herb–drug interactions are documented for Bai Lian in sources we could verify. The interaction that matters for this herb is a herb–herb one: the classical incompatibility with aconite-containing herbs (Chuan Wu, Cao Wu, Fu Zi) set out in the cautions section. (Absence of documented drug interactions reflects the state of the literature, not a demonstration of safety.)

Western / Biomedical Research

Chinese Herb Clinical Studies & Research

Provided as research context — a summary of published biomedical study, not a therapeutic or medical claim.

• Is there modern research on Bai Lian (Ampelopsis japonica)?

  Yes — and unusually for a topical herb, the most directly relevant study is a burn study. An ethanol extract of Ampelopsis japonica root applied to scald wounds in rats accelerated healing, matching the herb's classical indication for burns and slow-healing sores almost exactly. The wider research base is preclinical: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial activity, plus cell and animal oncology work.

  • Scald wound healing (animal) — a 2015 study in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine applied Vaseline ointments containing 5% and 20% Ampelopsis japonica root ethanol extract to hot-water scald wounds in rats once daily for 21 days. Wound size was significantly smaller in the treated groups on days 12, 15, 18 and 21; histology at day 14 showed a well-organised epithelial layer, angiogenesis, granulation and collagen formation; and the extract lowered TNF-alpha and raised IL-10. The 20% group achieved the greatest skin recovery. The authors note the herb has been used in traditional Korean medicine specifically for burns and scalds.
  • Contact dermatitis (animal) — a 2022 study in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine applied an ethanol extract topically to a mouse contact-dermatitis model, reporting reduced scaling and erythema, reduced epithelial hyperplasia and immune-cell infiltration, and lowered TNF-alpha, IL-6 and MCP-1, with effects comparable to dexamethasone in that model.
  • Constituents and antioxidant activity (laboratory) — a 2022 study in Antioxidants characterised bioactive components of the dried root with antioxidant, anti-alpha-glucosidase and anti-acetylcholinesterase activity.
  • Systematic review — a 2025 review in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology catalogues 137 compounds from the herb (flavonoids, polyphenols, sterols, organic acids, triterpenes) and summarises anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral and melanin-inhibiting activity, noting clinical use in burn healing and dermatology and calling for quality standards and long-term toxicity work.
  • Other preclinical directions — an ethanol extract suppressed migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in vitro (2015), and an aqueous extract improved ovulatory dysfunction in a letrozole-induced rat model of polycystic ovary syndrome (2024). Both are laboratory or animal work included as context, not as evidence of clinical effect.

  The burn and dermatitis studies are animal research, but they test the herb in the same manner and for the same purpose as the traditional indication, which makes them an unusually direct point of contact between the classical use and the modern literature.

  Sources: PMID 26152211, PMC 4495638, DOI 10.1186/s12906-015-0751-z (scald wound healing, rat); PMID 35907172, DOI 10.1007/s11655-022-3517-0 (contact dermatitis, mouse); PMID 35883719, DOI 10.3390/antiox11071228 (bioactive components, in-vitro); PMID 41176139, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2025.120835 (systematic review); PMID 25586508, DOI 10.3892/mmr.2015.3179 (breast cancer cell migration, in-vitro); PMID 38159378, DOI 10.1016/j.biopha.2023.116093 (PCOS model, rat). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• What plant is Bai Lian, and how is it different from Bai Ji, Bai Wei and Bai Qian?

  Bai Lian is the dried tuberous root of Ampelopsis japonica (Thunb.) Makino, a climbing vine in the grape family (Vitaceae). It shares only the syllable “Bai” with the herbs it is most often confused with — they are four unrelated plants with four different jobs.

  • Bai Lian — Ampelopsis japonica root (Vitaceae). Bitter, acrid, cool; Heart, Stomach, Liver. Clears heat and toxins; the topical herb for sores, abscesses, burns and non-healing ulcers.
  • Bai Ji — Bletilla striata rhizome (Orchidaceae). Bitter, sweet, astringent. Its work is to stop bleeding — internally for Lung and Stomach bleeding, topically for traumatic bleeding and cracked skin. Both herbs are used on the skin and both are in the aconite incompatibility group, which is exactly why they get muddled; but Bai Ji is a hemostatic and Bai Lian is a heat-and-toxin herb.
  • Bai Wei — Cynanchum atratum root (Apocynaceae). A cool-blood, deficiency-heat herb for lingering fever, not a topical sore herb.
  • Bai Qian — Cynanchum root and rhizome (Apocynaceae). A Lung herb that directs qi downward and transforms phlegm for cough and wheezing. It is a close botanical relative of Bai Wei — both are Cynanchum species — but neither has anything to do with Bai Lian's work on sores and burns.

  Classical pairing: Bai Lian is traditionally combined with Bai Ji for topical treatment of sores and slow-healing wounds — one closing and knitting the tissue, the other clearing the heat and toxin underneath. Because both are incompatible with aconite, a formula containing either must be checked against the caution below.

  Gap in our own record. Our reference entry for Bai Lian carries no Chinese characters and no English name translation, unlike most herbs in the library. The identity that is recorded — Radix Ampelopsis, Japanese Ampelopsis root — is correct and unambiguous, so this is an incompleteness rather than an error. We are flagging it rather than filling identity fields in from outside sources.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (identity, properties and channels for all four herbs as held in our library); botanical source and family per PMID 38159378, DOI 10.1016/j.biopha.2023.116093 and PMID 41176139, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2025.120835. Cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

This herb is incompatible with:

• Fu Zi (Radix Lateralis Praeparatus Aconiti Carmichaeli)
• Cao Wu (Radix Aconiti Kusnezoffii Preparata)
• Chuan Wu (Radix Aconiti Preparata)