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Not medical advice. The Atlas is not a substitute for a clinician who can examine you.

Goshajinkigan

Niu Che Shen Qi Wan (Ten-Herb Kidney-Yang Kampo Formula)

Evidence grade 2 of 5, Thin. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.

The written rationale for this grade is still being prepared.

FDA
Not FDA approved in the US; a licensed Kampo drug in Japan (e.g., Tsumura TJ-107)

Reference only. Not medical advice.

What can go wrong

Contains processed aconite (Fu Zi), so aconitine cardiotoxicity/neurotoxicity is the key caution, mitigated but not eliminated by standardized Kampo processing and dosing. Reported adverse effects include GI upset and, rarely, interstitial pneumonia and liver enzyme elevations associated with Kampo formulas containing certain herbs. Quality outside licensed Japanese manufacturing is variable.

This is something to take to a clinician. The Atlas can tell you what is known about goshajinkigan in general. It cannot tell you what is happening in your body, and the difference matters most for exactly the symptoms that bring people to this page.

Goshajinkigan (Chinese: Niu Che Shen Qi Wan) is a ten-herb Kampo formula that takes the eight ingredients of Hachimijiogan (Ba Wei Di Huang Wan, including processed aconite and cinnamon) and adds two more: achyranthes root (niu xi) and plantago seed (che qian zi). It is one of Japan's most-used Kampo medicines for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, and lower urinary tract symptoms, and by extension is used in men's urologic and sexual-vitality contexts under the kidney-yang framework. Sexual-endpoint evidence is weak; the meaningful (though still limited) trial base is in neuropathy and bladder symptoms.

Hachimijiogan plus two herbs, the Kampo workhorse for diabetic and urologic complaints.

What people take it for

These are the reasons people give for taking it. They are not effects it has been shown to have.

  • Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (studied in Japan)
  • Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
  • Lower urinary tract symptoms / nocturia
  • Cold limbs, numbness, edema (Kampo)
  • Kidney-yang vitality support (traditional)

How it is supposed to work

As a kidney-yang tonic it warms and moves fluids and 'qi transformation' in the lower burner; pharmacologically, studies attribute nerve and metabolic effects to improved nitric oxide signaling and insulin resistance in diabetic models, plus modulation of bladder afferent activity. These support its neuropathy/urologic use more than any direct sexual-function mechanism.

What people get wrong

  • Often saidA kidney-yang formula that restores male potency

    ActuallyIts evidence base is in neuropathy and urinary symptoms, not erectile function; virility use is a traditional extrapolation.

Who profits, and who pushes back

Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.

At a glance

Herbs
10 (Hachimijiogan + niu xi + che qian zi)
Japan drug code
Tsumura TJ-107
Contains
Processed aconite (Fu Zi)
Best-studied use
Diabetic/chemo neuropathy, LUTS

What this entry does not yet cover

What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about Goshajinkigan. A short entry is not a safe entry.

  • Timeline. We have not built the dated record of research and regulatory events.
  • Cost and market. We have not documented what it sells for or who sells it.
  • Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
  • Who uses it. We have not documented the user groups.
  • What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
  • How it compares. We have not set it against the alternatives.
  • Children and teenagers. We have not checked what is known about younger people.

Sources

The studies below are named and described, but not linked. You cannot open them from here and check our reading against them, which means this page is our summary of the literature rather than a document you can verify. Weigh it accordingly until the links exist.

The studies that matter

  • Goshajinkigan improves insulin resistance in diabetic rats via NO pathway2010

    Preclinical mechanism for metabolic/neuropathy benefit

  • Kampo (incl. Goshajinkigan) for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy2016

    Retrospective case series; mixed/limited clinical support