Dong quai
Danggui; tang-kuei of Stuart; Angelica polymorpha of Henry; Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels; in pharmacy Angelicae sinensis radix
- Known today as
- The root of Angelica sinensis, of the family Apiaceae. Stuart, in 1911, describes the drug as brown, fleshy rootstocks branching into a mass of large, close, pliant rootlets “something like gentian root,” soft and whitish or yellow within, with “a very strong” odour like celery and a sweetish, warm, aromatic taste. Its plant was still disputed in his day, Faber taking it for the honeywort of North America and the Japanese for a Ligusticum or Angelica; he cites Henry that Angelica polymorpha was the source of the drug exported from Ichang and Hankow. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report names ferulic acid and the phthalides of the essential oil, Z-ligustilide chief among them, as the constituents that seem most important.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- ferulic acid, Z-ligustilide, bergapten, and 1 more
- Earliest authority here
- Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica (1911)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. The assessment report finds that the root contains furocoumarins, among them bergapten, which make the skin sensitive to light and which in the presence of ultraviolet light is probably carcinogenic in humans, and the essential oil contains safrole and isosafrole; none of these has been measured in the root. Genotoxic effects, it notes, cannot be detected by pharmacovigilance or long use.
Dong quai: what was it used for?
A medicine for women. The drug, Stuart writes, “is held in very high repute among the Chinese” and ranks next to liquorice in frequency of use in prescriptions; it was much used “in the treatment of the menstrual, chlorotic, and puerperal diseases of women,” and also for haemorrhages of all kinds, colds, fluxes, indigestion, and ague.
Dong quai: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt a monograph on the root (public statement of 2013). It found no medicinal use of single-ingredient products in Europe after 1946, many products having appeared only as food supplements, and so no thirty years of traditional use with fifteen in the European Union, although the Chinese Pharmacopoeia showed long use in China; it also judged the indications unsuitable for use without medical supervision and found preliminary evidence of toxicological concern in the root’s chemistry. Its assessment report thought the antispasmodic effect of the oil’s phthalides might explain the use in painful periods, but found no data on clinical safety.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- ferulic acidwith the phthalides, the constituents that seem most important
- Z-ligustilidechief of the phthalides of the essential oil
- bergapten ChEMBLa furocoumarin; makes the skin sensitive to light
- safrole ChEMBLin the essential oil, with isosafrole
- Mechanism
- The assessment report thought the antispasmodic effect of the oil’s phthalides might explain the use in painful periods.
- Standing
- There is no European monograph: the European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt one (public statement of 2013).
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Angelicae sinensis radix (Angelica sinensis root). EMA/HMPC/681574/2012, 9 July 2013. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Angelicae sinensis radix. EMA/HMPC/614586/2012, 9 July 2013. Read in part · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Dong quai: what did the older authorities say?
- Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica (1911)
- Its other names, shan-ch‘in and pai-ch‘in, mean ‘mountain’ or ‘white’ celery, and Siebold says it is eaten like celery in Japan. Its name, Stuart reports, was said to come from its asserted power to make a woman ‘revert’ to her husband.
Sources
- Stuart, G. A. (1911). Chinese Materia Medica: Vegetable Kingdom, “Tang-kuei.” Internet Archive, chinesemateriame00stuauoft. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Angelicae sinensis radix (Angelica sinensis root). EMA/HMPC/681574/2012, 9 July 2013. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Angelicae sinensis radix. EMA/HMPC/614586/2012, 9 July 2013. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 read in full, 2 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026
- Chicago
“Dong quai.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dong-quai.
- MLA
“Dong quai.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dong-quai. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Dong quai. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dong-quai
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See Also
Sharing bergapten, safrole
Ruta graveolens · Citrus medica · Citrus bergamia · Sassafras albidum
Drawing on the same sources: Stuart
Nearby in the alphabet
Dover’s powder (with salts, in a powder) · Dittany (Origanum dictamnus, famous in antiquity for drawing out arrows) · Dragon’s blood · Dill (Anethum graveolens) · Eagle-stone (A hollow nodule of iron oxide with a loose stone rattling inside) · Diatrion piperion (with aniseed and ginger) · Earth of the Holy Land · Diascordium (cinnamon, bole, and other drugs)
Historical description, not medical advice.
