Dodder Seed
菟丝子 · Tù Sī Zǐ
Rebuilds deep stamina and steadies an aching back
What it does
Dodder seed is for the tiredness that settles in your lower back and knees. In TCM it's used for Kidney depletion, the classical name for a drained deep reserve, which shows up as a sore back, needing the bathroom constantly, and blurry vision. Practitioners also use it to steady an unstable early pregnancy. It's unusual in that it warms you without drying you out.
Safety
- Classed as neutral but leans warming. Skip it if you run hot and dry, or have constipation with dark, scant urine.
- Reported side effects: nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, stomach bleeding, and muscle spasms.
- No dose or history was recorded for those reports, so treat them as unexplained and stay inside 6–15g.
- The pregnancy picture is genuinely split, so this belongs with a practitioner rather than self-serve.
- Most sources treat it as a classical herb used to hold a pregnancy steady; one text forbids it outright.
- No information exists on its safety while breastfeeding.
How to take it
Simmer 6–15g of the seeds in 3 cups water for 25–30 minutes, then strain and drink. Usually taken once or twice daily as part of a longer course rather than a one-off.
Simmer 9g with a few goji berries for a mild daily back-and-stamina tea
Where it comes from
Dodder seed appears in the Shén Nóng Běn Cǎo Jīng, the oldest surviving Chinese materia medica. The plant is a parasitic vine with almost no leaves that wraps itself around other plants and lives off them, and only its tiny ripe seeds are used. Classical writers prized it for a rare quality: it builds warmth and moisture at the same time, so it doesn't dry you out the way most warming tonics do.