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Corydalis Yanhusuo: A Real Pain Alkaloid With a Liver Caveat

The most pharmacologically active herb in Nerve Honey has promising lab results and a safety history worth knowing.

Re-read November 6, 2026Label image and seller pages compared8 sources cited
Cover: Corydalis Yanhusuo: A Real Pain Alkaloid With a Liver Caveat, with the Nerve Honey bottle on a hexagonal plinth
Figure 1: The most pharmacologically active herb in Nerve Honey has promising lab results and a safety history worth knowing.Clinical blog

A traditional pain remedy

Yan hu suo, the tuber of Corydalis yanhusuo, appears in Chinese medicine for pain of many kinds, often boiled at several grams a day with other herbs. It is rich in isoquinoline alkaloids, a family that includes some powerful drugs, and that is both its appeal and its risk.

The laboratory results

In 2014, researchers screening corydalis compounds identified dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) as an analgesic in mice, effective against inflammatory pain and pain after nerve injury, acting mainly through dopamine D2 receptors and without the tolerance seen with morphine[1]. A later rodent study linked DHCB to less nerve pain after spinal cord injury[2]. Corydalis also contains protopine, shared with California poppy, which has anti-inflammatory activity in lab work[4].

The human evidence

One controlled study in healthy volunteers tested a preparation combining corydalis with angelica on the cold-pressor test, in which a hand is held in ice water; it increased pain tolerance[3]. That is acute experimental pain. No trial has tested corydalis for neuropathy, and none has tested a dose as small as Nerve Honey's 100 mg of powder.

The liver history

Tetrahydropalmatine (THP), another corydalis alkaloid, was the main active ingredient of Jin Bu Huan, a Chinese herbal product sold in the U.S. in the early 1990s. Adults who took it developed acute hepatitis, and children who swallowed it accidentally had slowed breathing and heart rate[5]. LiverTox lists Chinese herbal products among recognized causes of drug-induced liver injury[6], and a 2025 study set out evidence that corydalis itself can cause idiosyncratic liver injury in susceptible people[7].

What to do with this

At 100 mg a day the risk is probably low, but it is not zero, and it is unpredictable. Avoid corydalis products if you have liver disease, drink heavily or take other medicines with liver warnings. Stop and see a doctor for dark urine, yellow eyes or skin, pale stools or pain under the right ribs, and report any reaction through MedWatch[8].

Questions on this topic

Is corydalis an opioid?

No. Its alkaloids act mainly on dopamine receptors, not opioid receptors, though they are sedating.

How much corydalis is in Nerve Honey?

100 mg of corydalis powder per two capsules, about 1 to 3% of a traditional decoction dose.

Sources behind this page

Every link opens the original record. Those studies used single herbs at their own doses, often as extracts or teas, and none of them gave anyone a Nerve Honey capsule.

  1. 1Zhang Y, Wang C, Wang L, et al. A novel analgesic isolated from a traditional Chinese medicine. Curr Biol. 2014;24(2):117-123. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24388848/
  2. 2Wang Z, et al. Role of dehydrocorybulbine in neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury mediated by P2X4 receptor. Mol Cells. 2019. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30622226/
  3. 3Yuan CS, Mehendale SR, Wang CZ, et al. Effects of Corydalis yanhusuo and Angelicae dahuricae on cold pressor-induced pain in humans: a controlled trial. J Clin Pharmacol. 2004;44(11):1323-1327. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15496650/
  4. 4Huang W, Kong L, Cao Y, Yan L. Identification and quantification, metabolism and pharmacokinetics, pharmacological activities, and botanical preparations of protopine: a review. Molecules. 2021;27(1). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35011447/
  5. 5Horowitz RS, Feldhaus K, Dart RC, Stermitz FR, Beck JJ. The clinical spectrum of Jin Bu Huan toxicity. Arch Intern Med. 1996;156(8):899-903. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8774209/
  6. 6LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Chinese and other Asian herbal medicines. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; 2012-. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31643904/
  7. 7Guo L, Lin L, Ling J, et al. A new discovery: Corydalis yanhusuo causes idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity and its potential mechanisms. Biomed Chromatogr. 2025;39:e70093. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40277353/
  8. 8U.S. Food and Drug Administration. MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program. www.fda.gov/safety/medwatch-fda-safety-information-and-adverse-event-reporting-program

Treat Nerve Honey as a 60-day experiment you can measure

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