Hair loss, gray hair treated with TCM Biota Leaves

What is Ce Bai Ye (Biota Leaves)? It refers to the tender twigs and leaves of platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco. Medicinally most of them are with multiple branches, tiny but in various lengths, and in scaly shape. The color is red brown. Leave are opposite. Texture is crisp and fragile. And it has a slightly sweet smell and bitter and astringent taste. By the way, the biota seed (Bai Zi Ren) can be used for medicinal purpose as well.

From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this herb is bitter, astringent, and cold in nature. And it covers meridians of heart, liver, and large intestine. Main functions are to cool blood, stop bleeding, promote hair growth, clear wind-damp, prevent gray hair and hair loss, and disperse pyogenic infections. Main uses and indications are spitting out blood, nosebleed, Hematuria, bloody flux, Hematochezia, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis, arthralgia due to wind-dampness, bacillary dysentery, Hypertension, cough, erysipelas, mumps, scalding, alopecia areata caused by blood heat, and premature greying, etc. Usual dosage is 6 to 15 grams in decoctions, tea pills, and powder. Externally, it can be also applied by brew, mash, or powder.

Herbal remedies for hair loss
In terms of supplements and herbs for hair growth, there are many popular ones out there, such as aloe vera, ayurvedic herbs, horsetail, catnip, B vitamins such as B6, biotin, inositol and folic acid, rosemary oil, green Tea, Fo Ti (He Shou Wu), and omega3, etc. In comparison, Ce Bai Ye seems less popular, and certainly the most overlooked.

Modern pharmacology study showed that this herb contains essential oil, mainly including fenchone, camphor, bornyl acetate, terpene alcohol, juniperic acid, quercetin, myricetin, Kaempferol, hinokiflavone, waxiness, and multiple minerals. Its decoction, thanks to the active ingredients of quercetin and tannin, is able to reduce the bleeding volume and shorten the bleeding time dramatically. Besides, in-vitro studies showed that it can also markedly inhibit the growth of staphylococcus aureus, micrococcus catarrhalis, salmonella typhi, and corynebacterium diphtheriae, etc.