Yin Qiao San (Honeysuckle and Forsythia Powder)

What it is

Yin Qiao San, often translated as Honeysuckle and Forsythia Powder (also written Yinqiao San or Yinqiao powder), is a classical formula in Chinese medicine. Published research describes it as made of ten botanical drugs: honeysuckle flower (Jin Yin Hua), forsythia fruit (Lian Qiao), platycodon root (Jie Geng), mint (Bo He), lophatherum (Dan Zhu Ye), schizonepeta spike (Jing Jie Sui), prepared soybean (Dan Dou Chi), burdock fruit (Niu Bang Zi), reed rhizome (Lu Gen) and licorice (Gan Cao). [1] Practitioners may add or remove herbs for the person in front of them, so a bottle or granule product can differ from this list. See How a Chinese Herbal Formula Is Built for how formulas are structured.

This page is information only. It gives no doses and no advice to use the formula for a particular illness.

Where it comes from and how it is explained

The formula is attributed to a text called the Systematized Identification of Warm Diseases (Wen Bing Tiao Bian). [1] A research paper describes the formula, in traditional terms, as one that releases the exterior with pungent-cool herbs and clears "heat-toxin". [1] These are traditional ideas, not measurements. They describe how practitioners reason, and they are not a biomedical explanation of how the formula acts. For the wider picture, see Traditional Pattern Differentiation in TCM.

What research shows

Evidence is limited, and it varies by use. Labels below follow the site's evidence scale.

1. Added to standard drugs for pneumonia

   Promising but limited

   A review of 15 randomized trials (1,705 patients) found a higher "total effective rate" with Yinqiao powder plus Western medicine than with Western medicine alone. [2]

2. Publication bias

   A reason for caution

   The same review's statistical tests pointed to publication bias, possibly from unpublished negative studies, and it called for higher-quality studies. [2]

3. Colds and influenza

   Insufficient evidence for this formula

   A Cochrane review of Chinese herbs for influenza judged the methods of 17 of 18 trials poor and found weak evidence overall; it did not single out this formula. [3]

4. COVID-19

   Proper evidence not found

   A placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of Yinqiao Powder with another formula by telemedicine has been registered as a protocol; I did not find results. [4]

The pneumonia trials tested the powder added to Western medicine, so they do not show that the formula works on its own. Many of the studies come from Chinese-language literature, which has known problems with study quality and publication bias; see Publication Bias and Positive-Result Concerns in Chinese Trials. Laboratory and network-pharmacology studies exist, but they are preclinical and cannot show a benefit in people.

Quality of products

A 2022 paper noted that many studies had examined the chemistry and effects of Yinqiao powder, but few had examined a quality standard for it, and it proposed a fingerprinting method. [5] In practice, products sold as "Yin Qiao" vary by maker. For quality, contamination and label reading, see Chinese Herbal Products: Quality, Contamination and Medicine Interactions.

Related pages

Honeysuckle and Forsythia in Chinese Medicine covers the two chief herbs. TCM for Colds and Flu compares formulas by evidence.