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Herb library · Herb · Oplopanax horridus

Devil's club

A spiny shrub of Pacific Northwest forests, a cousin of ginseng, used as medicine by the Indigenous peoples of the region. It has been studied in the lab, mostly against cancer cells, but never in people.

Traditional use

Devil's club is an ethnobotanical medicine of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America, as the 2012 review records. Today its root bark is sold as a tincture or tea.

What studies show

No studies in people of this herb on its own yet. What is known of it comes from the traditions that use it.

  • Insufficient

    Blood sugar, infections and cancer: no studies in people were found. Extracts and polyyne compounds from the root bark slow cancer cells and act against bacteria in lab studies, and antidiabetic effects of the polyynes have been reported in lab work; none of this shows what the plant does in a person.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteThe stems and leaves are covered in brittle spines. In one reported case an 8-year-old girl struck in the eye by the plant had a thorn lodged deep in the cornea that later caused it to collapse and needed surgery. Handle it with gloves and eye protection, and have any eye injury from it examined daily.
  • InteractionIts effect on blood sugar in people is unknown. If you take diabetes medicines, do not add it without your clinician.
  • PregnancyNo safety information for pregnancy or breastfeeding was found in the sources used here.
  • Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.

Sources

  1. Chemical and pharmacological studies of Oplopanax horridus, a North American botanical (J Nat Med, 2012) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Oplopanax horridus: phytochemistry and pharmacological diversity and structure-activity relationship on anticancer effects (2018) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. Antimycobacterial polyynes of devil's club (Oplopanax horridus), a North American native medicinal plant (J Nat Prod, 1997) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  4. Corneal perforation and delayed anterior chamber collapse from a devil's club thorn (Cornea, 2008) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  5. Chemical and pharmacological studies of Oplopanax horridus, a North American botanical (J Nat Med, 2012) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.