Clears heat and resolves toxicity - Wei Ling Cai is used for sores, boils, carbuncles, and toxic swellings when redness, inflammation, and damp-heat are prominent.
Cools blood and checks dysenteric diarrhea - it is especially valued for chronic dysentery with blood, lingering intestinal heat, and hemorrhoidal bleeding.
Relieves abdominal pain from heat-type dysentery - the herb is suited to cramping abdominal pain with bloody or persistent diarrhea rather than to cold-deficiency loose stool.
Can be used externally for toxic swelling and bleeding lesions - powders, fresh preparations, or washes extend its use beyond the internal intestinal sphere.
Secondary Actions
Chinese Pharmacopoeia identifies Wei Ling Cai as the dried aerial part of Potentilla chinensis, collected in spring before stem elongation and dried for medicinal use.
This is the true Chinese cinquefoil entry in the batch; the neighboring herb #211 was an import mix-up and actually belongs to Bei Dou Gen / Menispermum dauricum.
Classic Formulas
Wei Ling Cai with Bai Tou Weng, Huang Bai, and Ma Chi Xian (委陵菜配白头翁黄柏马齿苋) - major combination logic for dysenteric diarrhea with heat, blood, and toxicity.
Single-herb Wei Ling Cai decoction or powder - traditional practice allows it to be used alone for chronic dysentery, hemorrhoidal bleeding, or toxic swelling when the pattern is clear.
Large-dose heat-bleeding use (委陵菜重用) - some later practitioners extend the dose upward when hemorrhoidal or uterine bleeding clearly reflects heat and toxic stasis.
Classical References
TCM Wiki lists Wei Ling Cai / Chinese Cinquefoil Herb as bitter and cold, entering the Liver and Large Intestine channels, with actions of clearing heat, removing toxicity, cooling blood, and checking diarrhea.
The Chinese Pharmacopoeia entry reproduced by ShennongAlpha identifies the herb as Potentillae Chinensis Herba, the dried aerial part of Potentilla chinensis, indicated for dysentery with abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, bleeding hemorrhoids, and carbuncle or swelling with toxicity.
American Dragon adds that Wei Ling Cai can be used by itself, is paired with Bai Tou Weng-class dysentery herbs, and is contraindicated in Yang deficiency with cold or Spleen-Stomach deficiency cold.
Modern Research
Active Compounds
Tormentic acid (pentacyclic triterpene) - one of the best-studied Potentilla chinensis actives with anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activity
Asiatic acid (pentacyclic triterpene) - a major active compound linked to hepatic and inflammatory pathway modulation
Potentilloside A and related flavonol/flavone glucuronides - leaf-derived antioxidant and skin-protective constituents
Pentacyclic triterpenes and gallic-acid-bearing phenolics - key anti-inflammatory and pharmacopoeial marker chemistry
Polysaccharides - macromolecular fractions with reported immunologic activity
Studied Effects
Tormentic acid isolated from Potentilla chinensis protected against fulminant hepatic failure in mice by suppressing NF-kB-linked inflammatory signaling and apoptosis pathways (PMID 24560903).
Asiatic acid from Potentilla chinensis attenuated ethanol-induced hepatic injury through antioxidant, Kupffer-cell, and inflammatory-pathway effects, reinforcing the herb's heat-toxic clearing research profile (PMID 24432383).
Flavonol and flavone glucuronides from Potentilla chinensis leaves reduced ROS, MMP-1 secretion, and inflammatory signaling in TNF-alpha-exposed dermal fibroblasts, supporting modern interest in skin-protective and wound-related applications (PMID 37891882).
A 2021 chemistry study isolated multiple pentacyclic triterpenes from Potentilla chinensis and found nitric-oxide inhibitory activity in macrophage models, giving a clear constituent-level anti-inflammatory signal (PMID 33524652).