Xanthium strumarium L. - syn. Xanthium sibiricum Patrin ex Widder - Asteraceae
苍耳 cang er (chin.), Siberian cocklebur, (large) cocklebur, Gewöhnliche Spitzklette, Sibirische Spitzklette

Annual herb, up to 120cm high, exact native range unknown, probably North America, extensively naturalized elsewhere; leaves ovate-deltate, 9-25 cm, papery, densely scabrid on both surfaces, margin irregularly dentate, male capitula in terminal umbels, corolla white, tubular, ca. 2.5mm, female capitula axillary. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=220014370

„The pistillate heads consist of two pistillate flowers surrounded by a spiny involucre. Upon fruiting, these two flowers ripen into two brown to black achenes and they are completely enveloped by the involucre, which becomes a bur. The bur, being buoyant, easily disperses in the water for plants growing along waterways. However, the bur, with its hooked projections, is obviously adapted to dispersal via mammals by becoming entangled in their hair.“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthium_strumarium

The plant contains carboxyatractyloside (CATR), which leads to an infrequent but often fatal form of herbal poisoning. „Both ATR and CATR inhibit the transport of ADP across the mitochondrial membrane, preventing the synthesis of ATP and leading to failure in gluconeogenesis and cell death because of energy starvation… Poisoning in humans may present with either acute hepatic or renal pathology and it is possible that there is a second, different mechanism of toxicity to the hepatocyte. Atractyloside in large amounts gives rise to massive necrosis, but in vitro studies have shown that at lower doses cells progress to apoptosis.“
[The biochemistry and toxicity of atractyloside: A Review., Stewart, M.J., Steenkamp, V., Therapeutic drug monitoring, 22(6), 2000, 641-649]

The methanol extract of the semen of Xanthium strumarium L. (MEXS) acts as a potent inhibitor of NO, PGE2 and TNF-α production. „Consistent with these findings, the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein and iNOS, COX-2 and TNF-α mRNA were down-regulated in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, MEXS inhibited nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) DNA binding activity and the translocation of NF-κB to the nucleus by blocking the degradation of inhibitor of kappa B-α (IκB-α)… MEXS (100, 200 mg/kg/d, p.o.) reduced acute paw edema induced by carrageenin in rats, and showed analgesic activities in an acetic acid-induced abdominal constriction test and a hot plate test in mice.“
[Methanol extract of Xanthium strumarium L. possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive activities., Kim, I.T., Park, Y.M., Won, J.H., Jung, H.J., Park, H.J., Choi, J.W., Lee, K.T., Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 28(1), 2005, 94-100]

„The ethanol extract of X. strumarium (EXS) was fractionated on the basis of polarity. Among the different fractions, the n-butanol fraction showed the highest anti-inflammatory activity in the croton-oil-induced ear edema test and furthermore reduced the number of writhings induced by acetic acid in mice in a dose-dependent manner… The isolated caffeoylquinic acids could partially explain the antinociceptive effect of X. strumarium polar extract.“
[Bioactivity-guided fractionation for anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties and constituents of Xanthium strumarium L., Han, T., Li, H.L., Zhang, Q.Y., Han, P., Zheng, H.C., Rahman, K., Qin, L.P., Phytomedicine: international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, 14(12), 2007, 825]

„Xanthii Fructus (XF) which is well known as “Cang-Erzi” in Taiwan is the dried fruit of Xanthium strumarium L. Aqueous extract of this fruit has been used for treatment of various diseases for treating sinusitis, headache due to rheumatism and skin pruritus (Hsu et al., 1985; Hsu et al., 2000). XF was reported to have inhibitory effects on mast cell-mediated allergic reaction (Hong, et al., 2003), anti-inflammatory actions in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated inflammatory responses (An, et al., 2004) and prevent of ß-cell damage in type 1 diabetes (Song, et al., 2009)… Statistical analysis revealed that AXF (1.0 g/kg) significantly inhibited the development of Carr-induced paw edema after 3h of treatment…“
[Antioxidant, antinociceptive, and anti-inflammatory activities of Xanthii Fructus extract., Huang, M.H., Wang, B.S., Chiu, C.S., Amagaya, S., Hsieh, W.T., Huang, S.S., Huang, G.J., Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 135(2), 2011, 545-552]

Masclef, A., Atlas des plantes de France, vol.2 t.199 (1890)
http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=1076131