-
Common Name
Zizypus, jujuba, Da Zao, Suan Zao Ren
-
Botanical Name
Ziziphus jujuba
-
Part Used
Seed (Crushed)
-
Clinical Summary
-
Monograph
-
Alcohol
30%
-
Dose
35 to 80mL weekly
Zizyphus is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to assist in falling asleep and staying asleep, for irritability, to assist in the relief of anxiety and nervous exhaustion and to aid in the relief of excess sweating and night sweats.
-
Traditional Use
Zizyphus has long been cultivated in China for its popular fruits known as da zao or big date. The seeds are known as suan zao ren and they have been extensively trialled as the principal ingredient in a traditional Chinese formula called Suan Zao Ren Tang, or sour jujube seed decoction, a well-known classic Chinese herbal prescription for insomnia.
-
Actions
Sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, hypotensive, relaxing nervine, antihydrotic
-
Indications
• Insomnia
• Anxiety
• Restlessness
• Night sweats
• Irritability
• Heart palpitations
• Hypertension -
Energetics
Warming and cooling. TCM Taste: weak sweet and sour; temperature: neutral; channels entered: heart, spleen, liver, stomach, gall bladder.
-
Use in Pregnancy
The safety of zizyphus during pregnancy has not been definitively established in clinical research and animal studies are lacking. In Australia zizyphus has been classified in a number of herbal medicine texts as a Category B2 which means “Drugs which have been taken by only a limited number of pregnant women and women of childbearing age, without an increase in the frequency of malformation or other direct or indirect harmful effects on the human foetus having been observed. Studies in animals are inadequate or may be lacking, but available data show no evidence of an increased occurrence of foetal damage.”
-
Contraindications & Cautions
In TCM the use of zizyphus seed is cautioned in patients with severe diarrhoea or excess heat.
-
Drug Interactions
Caution with the combined use of antidiabetic drugs due to theoretical additive effects such as increased risk of hypoglycaemia. The clinical significance is unclear, as these theories are based on animal research, but caution is advised until more data becomes available.
Caution with the combined use of central nervous system depressant drugs (such as benzodiazepines, barbiturates, certain sleep medicines and antihistamines some known as Valium, Xanax, Prozac, Rohypnol and Zoloft) due to increased risks of sedative effects. This theoretical risk of increased sedation is based on animal studies. -
Dietary Information
Vegan friendly. Gluten and dairy free.
-
Substitutes
Valerian, Saffron, Passionflower, Hops, Californian Poppy