Jian Dao Cao

Jian Dao Cao, the scissor herb, is most commonly identified in southern Chinese folk materia medica with Bidens pilosa L. (Asteraceae), the cosmopolitan beggartick, although the name is also locally applied to certain Ainsliaea species; identification of any given lot should be confirmed by voucher. Bidens pilosa is an erect annual 30 to 100 cm tall with opposite pinnately compound serrate leaves, small daisy-like heads of white ray florets around a yellow disc, and slender black achenes with two to four retrorsely barbed awns that cling to clothing and animal fur, the source of the name. The plant grows as a weed throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. In traditional Chinese folk medicine the whole herb is bitter, slightly sweet, and cool; it clears heat, resolves toxicity, dispels blood stasis, and stops swelling, used for sore throat, appendicitis, dysentery, hepatitis, snake and insect bites, and traumatic injury.