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Traditional Chinese medicine

JujubeZiziphus jujuba

The sweet red date of Chinese cooking and formulas; one 12-week placebo trial of a liquid extract in 37 constipated adults, and a children’s trial of a syrup.

Botanical name
Ziziphus jujuba
Part used
fruit (dried or fresh red date)
Also called
pinyin Da zao (大枣 / 红枣); Red date, Chinese date, Jujubae fructus
Used in
Traditional Chinese medicine
Taken for
Constipation, Appetite, Indigestion
Sold as
dried fruit, tea, syrup, extract, decoction

The plant

Jujube is the fruit of Ziziphus jujuba Mill., a small thorny tree of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) that grows across southern and eastern Asia, parts of Europe and Australia, and is especially at home in the inland north of China. A review of the fruit lists vitamin C, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, triterpenic acids and polysaccharides as its main biologically active components. In China the ripe fruit is dried to a red date, which is the pharmacopoeia drug and the form simmered into teas, soups, rice porridge and herbal decoctions.

For the gut, jujube turns up in three ways. In Chinese medicine it is a minor, sweetening and moderating member of many formulas, often paired with fresh ginger. As a food, the date is eaten as a fruit. And in the small body of clinical work on constipation, it has been tested as a liquid extract in adults and as a syrup or paste in children, which are the only single-ingredient gut trials we could find.

How the traditions use it

Traditional Chinese medicine (about TCM)

Da zao is classed in the Chinese materia medica as sweet and warm, entering the spleen and stomach channels. The tradition lists it for what the texts call spleen deficiency, a pattern that includes poor appetite, tiredness and loose stools, and says it nourishes blood, calms the spirit and moderates the harshness of stronger herbs, which is why it is added to so many formulas alongside fresh ginger. These are the tradition’s own descriptions, taken from the standard English materia medica, and they are not statements about what the fruit does in the body. Its classical role is supportive, not as the main herb for constipation, and the constipation trials below come from modern Israeli and Iranian groups, not from the Chinese texts.

What is in it

A review of the fruit reports vitamin C, phenolics, flavonoids, triterpenic acids and polysaccharides as the active components, and credits them in laboratory and animal work with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and gastrointestinal-protective activity. These are preclinical findings. The authors of that review say a stronger focus on clinical studies and on defining the phytochemistry of jujube fruit is needed, and the clinical papers below do not state which component, if any, produced the bowel effect they report.

What the human trials show

The single best-described trial is a controlled study from Israel in adults with chronic idiopathic constipation. Of 37 patients with a prolonged transit time on a retained-marker test, 18 received a liquid Ziziphus jujuba extract and 19 received placebo for 12 weeks. Retained transit markers fell from 12.2 in the extract group to 3 by week 11. Symptom severity scores dropped from 6 to 2 in the extract group and from 6.2 to 5 in the placebo group. Dropout was the striking number: two people on the extract and 16 on placebo left the study because of severe constipation. The abstract gives no dose and the trial is small.

In children, a double-blind trial from Iran compared a jujube syrup with polyethylene glycol (PEG) in functional constipation. Of 90 eligible children aged 2 to 10, 62 completed three months of follow-up (30 on syrup, 32 on PEG). The average therapeutic response score improved more with the syrup (P below 0.05), and encopresis episodes and pain scores fell more too. Only the PEG group reported side effects, all self-limiting, and liver and kidney tests showed no injury in the syrup group. The authors themselves say further studies are needed.

What has not been tested: jujube as a dried date eaten in food, jujube as a component inside formulas like Shen Ling Bai Zhu San (the review of that formula we read lists no jujube), any adult trial outside constipation, and any head-to-head comparison in adults against a standard laxative.

StudyDoseWhat it found
Controlled trial, 37 adults with chronic idiopathic constipation (18 extract, 19 placebo) PMID 19142004Liquid Ziziphus jujuba extract for 12 weeks (dose not stated in the abstract)Retained transit markers fell from 12.2 to 3; 2 extract and 16 placebo participants dropped out for severe constipation
Double-blind randomized trial, 90 eligible children aged 2 to 10 with functional constipation (62 completed) PMID 39799261Jujube syrup 1 to 5 mL per kg a day (average 5 to 25 mg per kg) vs PEG, three monthsTherapeutic response score improved more with the syrup than PEG (P below 0.05); side effects only in the PEG group
Narrative review of jujube fruit composition and health benefits PMID 23480594Not applicableLists gastrointestinal-protective activity in preclinical work; authors call for more clinical studies

How much the studies and the texts used

The Israeli trial gave a liquid extract for 12 weeks and the abstract does not state the amount. The Iranian pediatric trial dosed a syrup by body weight, 1 to 5 mL per kilogram a day, with the authors giving an average of 5 to 25 mg per kilogram of the active material, for three months. In the tradition the date is used whole, pitted and simmered in decoctions or congee, usually as one of several herbs, and we found no single-herb gram dose we could tie to a primary source. The extract and syrup in the trials are not the same material as the dried date in a soup, so the trial doses cannot be read across to food.

Doses here describe what studies and pharmacopoeias used. They are not a recommendation for any person; a clinician or pharmacist who knows your medicines and conditions is the right person to ask.

Side effects and cautions

As a food, jujube has a long record of use. In the children’s trial no one in the syrup group had a reported adverse event, and liver and kidney tests and blood sugar were checked at the start and the end; the Israeli abstract calls the extract safe but gives no adverse event counts. Neither trial was designed to detect rare harms, and the authors of the pediatric trial state that potential side effects need further study. We found no pregnancy or breastfeeding safety data for jujube extracts. Jujube also appears in multi-herb Chinese patent medicines, and one laboratory screen of 90 Chinese herbal and patent medicines bought in a New York neighborhood found Western pharmaceuticals in 5 samples, 2 of them undeclared or mislabeled. That is a finding about that sample and not about every product.

Interactions

We found no documented drug interaction for jujube fruit in the sources read. The jujube review presents its compilation of the fruit’s constituents as a basis for predicting potential drug and food interactions, which suggests they have not yet been mapped. The pediatric trial checked blood sugar, liver and kidney tests before and after treatment, which are the measures a clinician would look at first in someone taking diabetes or other long-term medicines. A concentrated extract or syrup carries far more of the fruit’s material than a few dried dates, so the trial products and the food are not interchangeable in this respect.

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Often paired or compared

Ayurvedic / TCM / Western Licorice Glycyrrhiza glabra TCM Poria Wolfiporia cocos (syn. Poria cocos) TCM Codonopsis Codonopsis pilosula Ayurvedic / TCM / Western Ginger Zingiber officinale

The questions that come up

Is jujube the same as the red dates in Chinese soup?

Yes. Da zao, the dried red date of Chinese cooking and the pharmacopoeia drug, is the fruit of Ziziphus jujuba. The trials on constipation used a liquid extract in adults and a syrup in children, not the dried date as eaten.

Does jujube help constipation?

One placebo-controlled trial of a liquid extract in 37 adults and one trial of a syrup against PEG in 62 children who finished found improvement with jujube. Both are small and from single groups, so we read them as early results.

What does traditional Chinese medicine say about it?

TCM classes jujube as sweet and warm, entering the spleen and stomach channels, and uses it to support what the texts call the spleen and to moderate stronger herbs. That is the tradition’s own framework.

Were there side effects in the trials?

The children’s trial reported none in the syrup group and checked liver, kidney and blood sugar tests at the start and the end. The adult abstract calls the extract safe but gives no counts. Both trials were small, and the pediatric authors say further studies of side effects are needed.

Sources