Ling Yang Jiao羚羊角
Saigae Tataricae Cornu · Saiga Antelope Horn
Overview
The horn of the saiga antelope, and the herb the wind-extinguishing group is traditionally led by: salty, cold and entering the Liver and Heart, it was the first choice for convulsion at the height of a fever, for a splitting head and red eyes from Liver fire, and for the delirium and rashes of a severe heat illness. It is also the clearest example in this chapter of a medicinal that practice has had to leave behind. The saiga is a protected and CITES-listed animal, commercial trade in wild-taken horn is closed, and in most countries a practitioner cannot legally obtain, sell or dispense it. This entry records what the materia medica teaches and names what is used in its place.
Nature & Flavor
Salty · ColdChannels
Liver · HeartTypical Dosage
1–3 g in decoctionActions
4 core actions
- Pacifies the Liver, extinguishes windConvulsion, rigidity and twitching at the height of a fever, and the eclamptic convulsion of late pregnancy — the pattern of Ling Jiao Gou Teng Tang.
- Clears the Liver, brightens the eyesSevere headache with red, painful eyes, dizziness and a short, explosive temper from Liver fire blazing upward.
- Cools the blood, resolves toxinHigh fever with delirium and agitation, and the blotchy rash of heat toxin pressed into the blood level.
- What is used insteadShan Yang Jiao 山羊角 (goat horn) is the direct substitute at a much larger dose, and Shui Niu Jiao 水牛角 (water buffalo horn) replaces it for the blood-cooling role. For the wind and rising-yang actions, practice relies on Gou Teng 钩藤, Tian Ma 天麻, Shi Jue Ming, Zhen Zhu Mu 珍珠母 and Di Long 地龙; for heat in the blood, Sheng Di Huang 生地黄, Xuan Shen 玄参 and Mu Dan Pi 牡丹皮.
In Formulas
Formulas containing Ling Yang Jiao
Indications & Clinical Uses
- High fever with convulsion, rigidity or twitching (classical use)
- Eclamptic convulsion, in the classical record — a hospital emergency today
- Splitting headache, dizziness, red painful eyes from Liver fire
- Delirium and heat-toxin rash in a severe febrile illness
Western Medical Keywords
Searchable condition terms
Contraindications
Cautions
*Restricted material. The saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is a CITES-listed species and a Class I protected animal in China; commercial international trade in wild-taken horn is closed, and most Western jurisdictions prohibit its import, sale and dispensing outright. Possession may itself be an offence. Listings and permit routes change, so confirm the current position with CITES and your own regulator rather than assuming anything is permitted.*
- Do not buy, import or carry patent medicines that declare saiga horn on the label (products of the / type) — they are frequently seized at the border, and material sold as saiga horn is in any case often something else.
- The clinical substitutes are Shan Yang Jiao 山羊角 at 10–15 g and Shui Niu Jiao 水牛角 at 15–30 g decocted first, with the concentrated buffalo-horn powder used where it is available.
- Where the material is lawfully held, the classical cautions still apply: it is cold, so it is wrong for the slow convulsion of a depleted child or for tremor arising from deficiency rather than heat, and it is not used in Spleen-deficient cold patterns.
- Convulsion, delirium and a first seizure are medical emergencies. Herbal treatment sits alongside urgent conventional care, never instead of it.
Contraindicated in pregnancy: Not a classical pregnancy prohibition — it appears in the classical treatment of eclamptic convulsion — but eclampsia is a life-threatening obstetric emergency requiring immediate hospital care, and in most countries the material cannot lawfully be supplied at all.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only
References
- Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing《神农本草经》(classical source, public domain).
2. Bensky, Clavey & Stöger. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd ed.
3. 《中华人民共和国药典》.
4. CITES appendices (Saiga tatarica) and 《国家重点保护野生动物名录》(2021) — check both for the current listing before handling any material.
Professional reference notice. Entries are scholarly references for licensed TCM practitioners and students — not medical advice, and not a recommendation to self-prescribe. Chinese herbal formulas should be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Content is an original editorial compilation by Cura x Cura, cross-checked against the cited references.