Dong Quai

Welcome to the UK's leading resources on Dong Quai and Chinese medicine for women's health.

Chinese herbal medicine has been used for many centuries to promote and maintain women's health.

Over 500 herbs are regularly used in formulas designed specifically for treating women, but amongst these, Dong Quai is by far the most used, due to its ability to nourish the Blood whilst balancing hormone levels. 

Uses described in traditional systems of medicine and pharmacopoeas

1.  Most commonly used in treatment of menstrual disorders such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhea (1,3,15,16,17,18,19).
2. Also used as an analgesic for symptomatic treatment of rheumatic arthralgia, abdominal pain and in the management of postoperative pain (1, 20).
3. Treatment of constipation (1).
4.  Anaemia (1, 20).
5. Chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver (20).

Clinical pharmacological studies

Menstrual Disorders

As early as the turn of the last century, a number of European studies were made into clinical use of Dong Quai in treatment of amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhoea. In these early cases (16-18) female patients were treated with 5ml of a fluid extract of the roots of Dong Quai three times daily before meals for 1 week before menstrualtion.

The treatment relieved premenstrual pain and induced menstrual flow in most cases. No abortive activity was observed in two pregnant women treated with the same fluid extract (15).

In another study a similar extract taken three times daily for one week before menstruation was effective in decreasing menstrual pain and chronic endometritis (16). 

Smooth muscle contraction

Decoction of the roots reportedly stimulated uterine contractions in the uterine smooth muscle of patients (19), although the doses and conditions being treated were not stated.

Contraindications

Dong Quai should not be administered to children or patients with diarrhoea or haemorrhagic diseases, nor should it be taken by pregnant or lactating women, unless under directions of a qualified practitioner.

Drug interactions

Patients receiving anticoagulation therapy (notable warfarin), should not take Dong Quai.

Adverse reactions

Dong Quai is regarded as having very few adverse reactions or side effects.

Daily Dosage

Crude Drug - 4.5 - 9g

Decoction - 9 - 15g

Other Names

Chinese Angelica, Angelicae Sinesis, dang gui, tang-kuei, can qui, hashyshat almalak, kara toki. <P>

Country of origin

Indiginous to China

Odou

Strongly aromatic

Taste

Sweet, pungent, slightly bitter.

Major chemical constituents 

Simple alkyl phthalides are the major components of the essential oil fraction. These include ligustilide, (Z)-ligustilide, (Z)-6,7-epoxyligustilide, angelicide, (z)-butylidenephthalide, butylphthalide and 2,4-dihydrophthalic anhydride. Other characteristic componesnts of the oil are terpines (including b-cadinene, carvacrol and cis-b-ocimene). The non-volatile components identified to date include phenylpropanoids (including ferulic acid).

_

References.

Quality control methods for medicinal plant materials. Geneva, World Health Organization,

1. Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China. Vol. I (English ed.). Beijing, Chemical Industry Press, 1997.

2. Hiroe M. Umbelliferae of Asia. Kyoto, Eikodo, 1958.

3. Hsu HY. Oriental materia medica, a concise guide. Long Beach, CA, Oriental Healing Arts Institute, 1986.

4. Zhu DPQ. Dong quai. American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 1987, 15:117–125.

5. Farnsworth NR, ed. NAPRALERT database. Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, January 1, 1998 production (an online database available directly through the University of Illinois at Chicago or through the Scientific and Technical Network [STN] of Chemical Abstracts Services).

6. Medicinal plants in Viet Nam. Manila, World Health Organisation

7. 1998.

8. European pharmacopoeia, 3rd ed. Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1996.

9. Guidelines for predicting dietary intake of pesticide residues, 2nd rev. ed. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1997 (document WHO/FSF/FOS/97.7).

10. Lin LZ et al. Liquid chromatographic–electrospray mass spectrometric study of the phthalides of Angelica sinensis and chemical changes of Z-ligustilide. Journal of Chromatography A, 1998, 810:71–79.

11. Terasawa K et al. Chemical and clinical evaluation of crude drugs derived from Angelica acutiloba and A. sinensis. Fitoterapia, 1985, 56:201–208.

12. Ma LF et al. The effect of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides on mouse bone marrow hematopoiesis. Zhonghua Xinxueguanbing Zazhi, 1988, 9:148–149.

13. Wang Y, Zhu B. The effect of Angelica polysaccharide on proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells. Chung Hua I Hsueh Tsa Chih, 1996,76:363–366.

14. Hirata JD et al. Does dong quai have estrogenic effects in postmenopausal women? A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Fertility and Sterility, 1997, 68:981–986.

15. Mueller A. Versuche über die Wirkungsweise des Extrakts des chinesischen Emmenagogon Tang-kui (Man-mu) oder Eumenol-Merek. Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1899, 46:796–798.

16. Langes H. Beobachtungen bei der Verwendung einiger neuer Medikamente. Eumenol, Dionin und Stypticin. Therapeutische Monatshefte, 1901, 7:363.

17. Palm R. Erfahrungen mit Eumenol. Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1910, 1:

23–25.

18. Buck P. Un nouveau remède spécifique contre la dysmenorrhée: l’eumenol. Belgique médicale, 1899, 2:363–365.

19. Chang HM, But PPH, eds. Pharmacology and applications of Chinese materia medica. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, PA, World Scientific Publishing, 1986.

20. Mei QB, Tao JY, Cui B. Advances in the pharmacological studies of Radix Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (Chinese danggui). Chinese Medical Journal, 1991, 104:776–781.

21. Duke JA, Ayensu ES. Medicinal plants of China. Vol. 1. Algonac, MI, Reference Publications, 1985.

22. Schmidt CF et al. Experiments with Chinese drugs. 1. Tang-kuei. Chinese Medical Journal, 1924, 38:362.

23. WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants