Jujube, a name in traditional Chinese medicine. It is the ripe fruit of Ziziphus jujuba Mill., a plant of the genus Ziziphus in the Rhamnaceae family. It has the effects of tonifying the middle burner and boosting qi, as well as nourishing the blood and calming the mind. It is primarily used to treat spleen deficiency syndrome, restlessness, and insomnia.
Jujube
Jujube, a name in traditional Chinese medicine. It is the ripe fruit of Ziziphus jujuba Mill., a plant of the genus Ziziphus in the Rhamnaceae family. It has the effects of tonifying the middle burner and boosting qi, as well as nourishing the blood and calming the mind. It is primarily used to treat spleen deficiency syndrome, restlessness, and insomnia.
Chinese Name : 大枣
Latin Name : Jujubae Fructus
Aliases : Hu, Mu Mi, dried jujube, Mei Zao, Liang Zao, red jujube, dried red jujube, gel jujube, Nan Zao, Bai Pu Zao, Ban Guan Zao (Zhejiang), Ci Zao (Sichuan)
Authentic Producing Area : Mainly produced in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Guizhou, and other regions.
Nature, Flavor & Meridian Tropism : Sweet in taste, warm in nature; enters the Spleen, Stomach, and Heart meridians
Benefits & Efficacy
Benefits
Tonifies the middle and boosts qi; nourishes blood and calms the mind.
Indications
Mainly used to treat spleen deficiency syndrome, organ restlessness, and insomnia.
Usage and Dosage
Internal use: Split open and decocted; 6–15 g.
Precautions
Contraindicated for those with damp phlegm, food stagnation, dental disorders, or parasitic infections. *Introduction to Medicine*: Contraindicated for epigastric fullness and vomiting due to abdominal distension. Excessive consumption may induce wind-related disorders and harm the spleen. *Commentary on the Classic of Materia Medica*: Not suitable for children with malnutrition or those suffering from phlegm-heat. *Compendium of Materia Medica*: It is strictly contraindicated for those with stomach pain and qi stagnation, abdominal pain caused by roundworm obstruction, and all other parasitic infections. *Dietary Spectrum of Suixi Residence*: Excessive consumption may lead to bloating, diarrhea, heat, and thirst, and is highly detrimental to health. It is contraindicated for children, postpartum women, and those before or after febrile diseases, summer-heat, and damp-heat conditions, as well as for those with jaundice or edema.
Chemical Constituents
This product contains organic acids, triterpenoid glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, vitamins, amino acids, essential oils, trace elements, and other components.
Pharmacological Actions
Jujubes can enhance muscle strength and promote weight gain; they increase gastrointestinal mucus, repair gastrointestinal damage, and protect the liver; they raise cAMP levels in white blood cells and exert anti-allergic effects; they possess sedative and hypnotic properties; and they also inhibit cancer cell proliferation, exhibit antimutagenic effects, and provide analgesic, antitussive, and expectorant benefits.
Relevant Discussions
1. *Shennong Bencao Jing*: “Calms the middle burner and nourishes the spleen.”
2. *Mingyi Bielu*: “Tonifies the middle burner and boosts qi; strengthens the body; relieves restlessness and oppression.”
3. *Bencao Jing Jizhu*: “Neutralizes the toxicity of Aconite.”
4. *Rihua Zi*: “Moistens the heart and lungs; stops coughing; tonifies the five viscera; treats deficiency-related debility; and eliminates stagnant qi in the stomach and intestines.”
5. *Dietary Spectrum of Suixi Ju*: “Neutralizes the toxicity of Sichuan pepper.”
Applications
Clinical Applications
1. Treats spleen qi deficiency, emaciation, fatigue and weakness, loose stools, and other related symptoms. Effective when used alone. If qi deficiency and weakness are severe, it should be combined with spleen-tonifying and qi-nourishing herbs such as ginseng and white atractylodes.
2. A key herb for treating heart deficiency resulting in a lack of nourishment, restlessness of the mind, and organ-induced agitation.It is effective when used alone. For example, in *The Standard Rules for Diagnosis and Treatment*, it is used to treat organ-induced agitation characterized by spontaneous sadness, crying, or laughter, by roasting red dates until their essence remains and taking them with rice porridge. Since this condition is often related to deficiency of heart yin and hyperactivity of heart fire—and frequently involves deficiency of heart qi as well—it is commonly combined with floating wheat and licorice, as in the Decoction of Licorice, Floating Wheat, and Red Dates (*Essentials of the Golden Cabinet*).
3. The *Qianjin Fang* uses this herb to treat insomnia caused by debility and restlessness.
4. The Ten-Date Decoction (*Shanghan Lun*) uses this herb to moderate the potent and toxic properties of Gan Sui, Da Ji, and Yuan Hua.
Related Compatibility
1. Red Dates Combined with Licorice: Red dates tonify qi and generate body fluids; licorice harmonizes the middle burner and alleviates urgency. When combined, these two herbs provide a sweet, mild effect that tonifies qi and nourishes the heart and spleen. Suitable for conditions of qi deficiency in the heart and spleen, they are often used as auxiliary or guiding herbs.
2. Red Dates with Ejiao: Red dates nourish the blood and harmonize the ying and wei qi; ejiao nourishes yin, replenishes blood, and stops bleeding. When combined, these two herbs nourish the blood, stop bleeding, and harmonize the ying and wei qi. This combination is suitable for various types of bleeding associated with deficiency of the ying and wei qi.
3. Jujube paired with Lepidium Seed: Jujube is sweet and mild, tonifying qi and strengthening the spleen while safeguarding vital energy; Lepidium Seed is bitter and cold, dispersing lung qi to clear the lungs and relieve wheezing. When combined, they clear the lungs, relieve wheezing, and promote diuresis without harming lung qi, thereby resolving stagnation in the lungs. This combination is suitable for conditions involving phlegm obstruction, qi reversal, coughing, and wheezing.
4. Jujube Combined with Wheat: Jujube is sweet and warm; it tonifies the spleen and stomach, generates nourishing blood, and has the function of nourishing blood and calming the mind. Wheat is sweet and cool; it nourishes heart qi, eliminates restlessness due to deficiency, and serves to nourish the heart and calm the mind. When combined, these two herbs nourish heart blood, calm the mind, and relieve restlessness. This combination is suitable for conditions such as emotional restlessness in women and feelings of sadness accompanied by the urge to cry.
5. Jujube paired with Angelica sinensis: Jujube is sweet and warm, with the effects of tonifying the spleen and stomach, nourishing blood, and calming the mind; Angelica sinensis is sweet and warm, with the effects of tonifying and harmonizing blood, regulating menstruation, and relieving pain. When combined, these two herbs enhance the ability to tonify the spleen and stomach, transform and assimilate nutrients, and generate nourishing blood. This combination is suitable for conditions such as spleen deficiency that fails to generate nourishing blood, qi deficiency with blood deficiency, a sallow complexion, palpitations, and insomnia.
Medicinal Identification
1. Sour Jujube Seeds and Red Dates: Both have a sweet taste and the ability to nourish the blood and calm the mind, and are used together to treat mental restlessness caused by blood deficiency. However, sour jujube seeds have a sour, neutral nature and enter the Heart and Liver meridians; they excel at nourishing the blood and benefiting the liver, and also have a sweat-stopping effect. They are suitable for palpitations and insomnia caused by blood deficiency in the Heart and Liver, as well as excessive sweating due to general physical weakness.Jujube is warm in nature and enters the Spleen and Stomach meridians; it excels at tonifying the middle and boosting qi, and can also moderate the properties of other herbs. It is suitable for various conditions of spleen deficiency, sallow complexion due to blood deficiency, organ dryness, purpura, and for mitigating the toxic side effects of potent medications.
2. Licorice and Jujube: Both have a sweet taste and share the functions of tonifying the middle and boosting qi, as well as harmonizing the properties of other herbs. They are used for spleen qi deficiency, to moderate the effects of potent herbs or reduce toxic side effects, and to harmonize the spleen and stomach while protecting vital energy; they are often used in combination to enhance each other’s effects.However, licorice—which is sweet and neutral in nature—also clears heat and detoxifies, eliminates phlegm and relieves cough, and alleviates acute pain. It can be used for heat-toxin sores and ulcers, sore throat, poisoning from drugs or food, cough with excessive phlegm, and cramping pain in the epigastrium, abdomen, and limbs.Jujube is sweet and warm in nature and has the effects of nourishing the blood and calming the mind. It can be used for blood deficiency with pallor and weakness, organ dryness, and restlessness, as well as for treating purpura and bleeding.
Related Medicines
Ejiao Sanbao Paste, Qi-Tonifying and Blood-Nourishing Granules, and Yening Syrup.
Related Prescriptions
Tingli-Jujube Decoction for Draining the Lungs (from *Essentials of the Golden Cabinet*), Glycyrrhiza-Barley-Jujube Decoction (from *Essentials of the Golden Cabinet*), and Decoction of Ten Jujubes (from *Treatise on Cold Damage*).
Medicinal Diet Therapy
Red Date and Lotus Seed Decoction:
1. Effects: Tonifies the middle burner and boosts qi; nourishes and strengthens the body; nourishes the blood and calms the mind. Regular consumption can strengthen heart function, promote blood circulation, stabilize blood pressure, increase appetite, and promote sleep.
2. Ingredients: 50g lotus seeds, 7 red dates, half a spoon of white sugar.
3. Preparation: Soak the red dates in boiling water to rehydrate them, then peel off the outer skin. Soak the lotus seeds to rehydrate them, remove the inner cores, and set them aside in a pot. Add two large bowls of water to the pot and simmer over low heat for about 1 hour, until the red dates are soft and fully cooked. Finally, add half a spoon of white sugar to taste before serving.
4. Usage: Drink frequently as a substitute for tea.
Notes
Patients requiring treatment with Chinese herbal medicine should first consult a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) hospital, where a TCM practitioner will conduct a professional pattern differentiation and prescribe an herbal formula.
Processing & Preparation
Harvesting & Processing
Harvest when the fruits ripen in autumn, sun-dry them, and use them raw.
Processing Methods
1. Jujube: Take the raw material, remove impurities and rotten fruits, wash thoroughly with clean water, and dry.
2. Roasted Jujube: Take clean jujubes, place them in a pan, heat over high heat, and roast until the surface turns charred black; remove, spread out, and allow to cool.
3. Steamed Jujube: Wash the jujubes, place them in a steamer, steam for half an hour, remove, and dry.
Storage Methods
Store in a dry container in a well-ventilated, dry place to prevent insect infestation and mold.
Crude Drug Identification
Identification
1. The powder of this product is brown. The exocarp is brown to reddish-brown; epidermal cells appear roughly square, polygonal, or rectangular when viewed from the surface, with their vacuoles filled with a reddish-brown substance; when viewed in cross-section, they are covered by a relatively thick cuticle; subepidermal cells are yellow or yellowish-brown, roughly polygonal, with slightly thickened walls.Clusters of calcium oxalate crystals (some broken into sand-like crystals) or small prismatic crystals are present in the parenchyma cells of the mesocarp. The stone cells of the seed are pale yellowish-brown, polygonal in shape, with distinct layering, fine and dense pits and grooves, and their cell cavities contain a yellowish-brown substance.
2. Take 2 g of the powdered sample, add 10 mL of petroleum ether (60–90 °C), soak for 10 minutes, sonicate for 10 minutes, filter, discard the petroleum ether solution, air-dry the residue, add 20 mL of diethyl ether, soak for 1 hour, sonicate for 15 minutes, filter, and concentrate the filtrate to 2 mL to serve as the test solution.Separately, take 2 g of jujube reference material and prepare a reference material solution using the same method. Then, take oleuropeic acid reference standard and betulinic acid reference standard, and prepare solutions containing 1 mg of each per 1 mL using ethanol, respectively, as the reference standard solutions.Perform the test according to the thin-layer chromatography method (General Chapter 0502). Pipette 10 μL each of the test solution and the reference herbal material solution, and 4 μL each of the two reference standard solutions, and apply them separately onto the same silica gel G thin-layer plate. Develop the plate using a mobile phase of toluene-ethyl acetate-glacial acetic acid (14:4:0.5) as the developing agent, develop the plate, remove it, allow it to air-dry, spray with a 10% ethanol solution of sulfuric acid, heat until the spots appear clearly, and examine under natural light and ultraviolet light (365 nm), respectively.In the chromatogram of the test sample, spots of the same color or fluorescent spots appear at positions corresponding to those in the chromatograms of the reference herbal material and the reference standards.
Properties of Crude Drugs
The fruit is elliptical or spherical, 2–3.5 cm long and 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter. The surface is dark red, slightly glossy, and has irregular wrinkles. The base is concave and has a short pedicel. The outer pericarp is thin; the middle pericarp is brownish-yellow or light brown, fleshy, soft, rich in sugar, and oily.The seed is spindle-shaped, sharply pointed at both ends, and hard in texture. It has a faintly fragrant aroma and a sweet taste.
Properties of Processed Slices
1. Jujube: See the “Characteristics of the Medicinal Material” section.
2. Roasted jujube: Resembles a jujube, with a charred black surface.
3. Steamed jujube: Resembles a jujube, with a brownish-black surface.
Botanical Information
Botanical Classification
Ziziphus jujuba, a plant of the genus Ziziphus in the Rhamnaceae family.
Morphological Characteristics
A deciduous shrub or small tree, growing up to over 10 meters tall. It has long branches, short branches, and new shoots. The long branches are smooth and glabrous; the young branches are slender and slightly curved in a “之” shape, purplish-red or grayish-brown, with two stipular spines: the long spine can reach 3 cm in length, thick and straight, while the short spine curves downward and is 4–6 mm long; the short branches are short and stout, oblong in shape, and emerge from old branches;Current-year twigs are green and pendulous, occurring singly or in clusters of 2–7 on short branches. Simple leaves are alternate, papery in texture, with petioles 1–6 mm long (up to 1 cm on long branches);Leaf blades are ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3–7 cm long and 2–4 cm wide, with a bluntly rounded or rounded apex bearing a small tip; the base is slightly oblique and nearly rounded; margins are finely serrate; the upper surface is dark green and glabrous, while the lower surface is pale green, glabrous or sparsely pubescent along the veins; the basal veins are trifid.Flowers are yellowish-green, hermaphroditic, and usually arranged in cymes of 2–8 flowers in the leaf axils; the calyx is 5-lobed, with ovate-triangular lobes; petals are 5, obovate, with a claw at the base; stamens are 5, opposite the petals, and attached to the margin of the disk; the disk is thick, fleshy, circular, and 5-lobed;The ovary is 2-chambered, fused with the disk, and the style is bifid. The drupe is oblong or oblong-ovate, 2–3.5 cm long and 1.5–2 cm in diameter; it is red when ripe, later turning reddish-purple. The mesocarp is fleshy, thick, and sweet; the stone is sharply pointed at both ends. The seeds are flattened-elliptical, about 1 cm long. Flowering occurs from May to July, and fruiting from August to September.
Distribution Area
Native to China, it is now commonly cultivated in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Growth Habits
It prefers a dry, cool climate; it is sun-loving, cold-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and salt-alkali tolerant, capable of withstanding temperatures as low as -31.3°C and as high as 39.3°C. It can be planted on sunny, dry slopes, hills, wastelands, plains, and along roadsides; sandy or sandy loam soils are most suitable for cultivation, while it is not suitable for low-lying, waterlogged areas.
Propagation Methods
Propagation is achieved through seeds, division, and grafting.
Cultivation Techniques
1. Seed Propagation: Seeds sown in spring must undergo sand stratification and be planted after the ground thaws; fall sowing takes place in mid- to late October. Dig furrows 33 cm apart and 7–10 cm deep. Sow one seed every 7–10 cm, cover with 2–3 cm of soil, and water to maintain moisture.
2. Propagation by Division: Cut off new shoots emerging from the base of mature plants, along with their roots, and plant them.
3. Propagation by Grafting: Grafted jujube trees grow faster, have fewer thorns, and bear fruit earlier.Hawthorn is commonly used as the rootstock, and methods such as bud grafting, cleft grafting, bark grafting, and rootstock grafting are employed. Seedlings can be transplanted after 1–2 years of cultivation. Transplanting can be done in the spring before bud break or in the fall after leaf fall. When planting on slopes, construct fish-scale pits, small terraces, or horizontal terraces with a row spacing of 3 m × 3 m; on gentle slopes, use a row spacing of 5 m × 4 m or 6 m × 5 m.Planting pits should have a diameter of 80–100 cm; apply 25–50 kg of composted manure per pit, and water immediately after planting.
Pest and Disease Control
1. Diseases include jujube blight. For plants with mild initial symptoms, apply additional organic fertilizer; remove diseased plants immediately upon detection. Severely affected large trees should also be uprooted and completely burned.
2. Pests include the jujube loopers (jujube geometer moths), peach fruit borers, jujube armyworms, thorn moths (Yang La Zi), and jujube leaf mites.In addition to selecting and breeding new varieties resistant to pests and diseases, other methods include scraping bark, sealing tree holes, sifting out insect cocoons, and removing weeds, diseased or insect-infested fallen branches, leaves, and fruit from the jujube orchard. For jujube leaf mites, spray a 3–5° Baumé lime-sulfur solution before bud break.