# Java tea (Orthosiphon aristatus)

**Orthosiphon stamineus* Benth. of Kirtikar and Basu; *Ocimum grandiflorum* Blume; *Orthosiphon aristatus* (Blume) Miq.; in pharmacy *Orthosiphonis folium**

**Known today as.** *Orthosiphon aristatus*, a herb of the family Lamiaceae forty to eighty centimetres high, found from tropical Asia to tropical Australia. Kirtikar and Basu describe slender undershrubs with four-angled stems, leaves in distant pairs, and white or purplish flowers with slender stamens twice as long as the corolla, and quote Hooker in 1870 on its range, “from Assam and Burma to the Philippine islands, and from the Nicobars and Siam to Java, Borneo” and north-east Australia: “It is a stone plant, a profuse flowerer, and of very pretty appearance.” The drug is the leaves and stem tips gathered in flower.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Not where a reduced fluid intake is advised, as in severe heart or kidney disease, nor under eighteen, nor in pregnancy or breast-feeding. See a doctor if fever, painful urination, spasms, or blood in the urine appear.

## What was it used for?

A tea for the kidneys and bladder. Kirtikar and Basu record that “In Java, the leaves are made into a tea and used in the treatment of diseases of the kidneys and bladder,” that Dr Van Itallie used them for gout and kidney disorders, and that in Holland and France they had been used successfully for diseases of the urinary organs. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report adds its traditional use in Java for high blood pressure and diabetes.

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the leaf as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” to increase the amount of urine and flush the urinary tract as an adjuvant in minor urinary complaints (monograph of 2021). Its assessment report finds potassium at about 3 per cent, diterpenes (the orthosiphols), lipophilic flavones such as sinensetin, and rosmarinic acid. It found the clinical evidence for the very effect claimed thin: of two clinical studies of its diuretic action, one found it weaker than horsetail and the other found no significant difference from placebo, and two pharmacological studies showed no significant change in urine volume. The use rests on long-standing use.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **potassium**: about 3 per cent
- **orthosiphols**: the diterpenes
- **sinensetin**: a lipophilic flavone
- **rosmarinic acid**: 

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2021): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” to flush the urinary tract in minor urinary complaints.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report (2021).** European interest began with the scientific work of the Dutchman Van Itallie in 1886. Java tea entered the Dutch Pharmacopoeia in 1926 and the French in 1974, and has been used as a herbal substance in France since 1965 and in Germany since 1976.

## Sources

- Kirtikar, K. R., & Basu, B. D. (1918). *Indian Medicinal Plants*, vol. 2, “Orthosiphon stamineus.” Internet Archive, b31359644_0002.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Orthosiphonis folium (Java Tea)*. EMA/HMPC/486551/2020, 22 September 2021.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Orthosiphonis folium*. EMA/HMPC/486549/2020, 22 September 2021.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Orthosiphonis folium (Java Tea)*. EMA/HMPC/486551/2020, 22 September 2021.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Orthosiphonis folium*. EMA/HMPC/486549/2020, 22 September 2021.

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*Java tea.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-17. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/java-tea

Historical description, not medical advice.