Best seller
Jia Wei Xiao Yao San
Free and Easy Wanderer Plus
4.8 · 26 reviews
Xiao Yao San's cooler cousin. Tree peony bark and gardenia went in during the Ming dynasty and it's been a busy-life favourite ever since.
£24.50
Herbal stress relief
Mind & Mood Supplements
Five old Chinese formulas for the frazzled days, the short fuses and the nights your head won't stop chattering. Herbalists have been reaching for these for hundreds of years, long before anyone called it stress. We've just made them a lot easier to take. Not sure where to start? The little quiz below takes about ten seconds.
5:1 strengthDaoDi herbsVegan & gluten-freeFree UK delivery £40+
Which sounds like you lately?
Find your mood supplement
Not sure? Drop us a line
Traditionally chosen
Xiao Yao San
The Free and Easy Wanderer. Herbalists have reached for it for over nine hundred years when someone's worn down and wound up at the same time.
View formula
5 formulas
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Best seller
The classic
Xiao Yao San
Free and Easy Wanderer
4.9 · 23 reviews
Eight herbs, first written down around 1107. Probably the most famous formula in the whole herbal tradition, and it's easy to see why people stick with it.
£23.50
Cooling
Long Dan Xie Gan Tang
Gentian & Skullcap Root
4.9 · 9 reviews
Ten herbs and the coolest of the lot. Herbalists think of it when someone's running really hot and bothered.
£24.50
For tension
Chai Hu Shu Gan San
Bupleurum & Citrus Peel
Seven herbs from the Ming era, with bupleurum, cyperus and Buddha's hand citron. Bit of a no-nonsense formula, this.
£24.50
Modern formula
Jie Yu An Shen Pian
Ease the Mood, Settle the Spirit
Fourteen herbs including albizia bark, which goes by a lovely name in Chinese: the "bark of collective happiness".
£24.50
Side by side
Comparing our five supplements for stress and mood
| Compare | Xiao Yao San | Jia Wei Xiao Yao San | Chai Hu Shu Gan San | Long Dan Xie Gan Tang | Jie Yu An Shen Pian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herbs | 8 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 14, the most here |
| Best known for | Worn down and wound up | Short fuse, feeling warm | Tension and tightness | Hot-headed days | A busy, restless mind |
| How it feels | Gentle, balancing | Cooling | Moving | Very cooling | Settling |
| Key herb | Bupleurum | Gardenia | Cyperus | Gentian | Albizia bark |
| First recorded | Around 1107, Song | Ming, 1500s | Ming again, about 1600 | 1600s | A modern recipe |
The thinking behind it
Herbal remedies for stress and anxiety: the free and easy idea
Old Chinese herbalists had their own take on stress. They linked how we feel to the Liver, which in their system was a sort of traffic controller for energy round the body. When it's happy, everything flows. Mood's steady. You feel like yourself.
Put it under pressure though, think deadlines, rows, a rubbish commute, and that flow gets stuck. Bottled up. You know the drill. Jaw clenched, big sighs, biting the head off someone who only asked what's for tea. Leave it stuck long enough and it starts to heat up, which is why some formulas here cool as well as soothe.
That's where Xiao Yao San comes in. Its name means free and easy wandering, borrowed from the old Daoist writer Zhuangzi. Three of the formulas on this page share that same bupleurum and peony pairing at their heart.
What's inside
The herbs behind our mood supplements
Some herbs turn up in nearly every formula here. A few of them have brilliant stories, too.
柴胡
Bupleurum
Chai Hu
A feathery little plant with a big job. It's the backbone of four of our five mood formulas, and herbalists see it as the herb that gets stuck things moving.
Found in: Every formula except Jie Yu An Shen Pian
白芍
White Peony Root
Bai Shao
The softer partner to bupleurum. Where one moves things along, peony calms and nourishes. They've been a double act for about nine hundred years.
Found in: Every formula except Long Dan Xie Gan Tang
合欢皮
Albizia Bark
He Huan Pi, "collective happiness bark"
It's off the silk tree, which has these daft fluffy pink flowers you might've seen in Mediterranean gardens. Not hard to work out why it got picked for a mood blend, is it?
Found in: Jie Yu An Shen Pian
栀子
Gardenia Fruit
Zhi Zi
Yes, from the same plant as the fragrant flower. The little orange fruits are what herbalists use when they want to take some heat out.
Found in: Jia Wei Xiao Yao San and Long Dan Xie Gan Tang
Just so we're clear, this is about how these herbs have traditionally been used. Our tablets are food supplements, mind. Not medicine.
Natural mood boosters
A few things worth doing anyway
We sell supplements, so we would say they help. But we'll be honest, the basics count for more. Most of these come from the NHS Every Mind Matters advice, and they're free.
- 1Get some daylightEven ten minutes outside first thing. Grey British skies still count.
- 2Move aboutWalk the dog, go for a swim, dance round the kitchen like nobody's watching. Anything that gets you out of your own head.
- 3Breathe out longerIn for four, out for six. Do it a few times and see. It's a surprisingly good reset.
- 4Talk to someoneA friend, your GP, anyone who'll listen. Bottling it up is exactly what the old herbalists warned about.
- 5Go easy on coffee and boozeBoth feel like they help in the moment. Neither really does by the next day.
Verified Loox reviews
What our customers say
"Very pleased to find this traditional patent formula available in the UK and in an easy to use form."
"I've been using this product for a couple of years and wouldn't be without it."
"I absolutely love Xiao Yao San. I always look forward to taking it. I will be reordering."
Questions
Supplements for stress and anxiety: your questions
Can't find your answer? Drop us a line.
Which one should I start with?
Have a go at the quiz up top. If you're still stuck, most people start with Xiao Yao San, or Jia Wei Xiao Yao San if they tend to run a bit hot. Or drop us a line and we'll talk it through with you.
Can herbal supplements help with anxiety?
It's the thing people ask us about most. Herbalists have long reached for formulas like Xiao Yao San and Jie Yu An Shen Pian for that wound-up, can't-settle feeling, and plenty of our customers keep them in their routine. But ours are food supplements, not a treatment for anxiety. If worry's getting in the way of everyday life, please talk to your GP. NHS talking therapies are free and you can refer yourself.
What are the best supplements for stress?
We'd say the ones that match how stress shows up in you, which is the whole point of the quiz. What we can promise is 5:1 strength, DaoDi herbs and recipes that have been in use for centuries.
How is this different from ashwagandha or St John's wort?
Those are single herbs. Ours are whole formulas, where seven to fourteen herbs are balanced against each other. Different tradition, different approach. And please don't mix St John's wort with anything without checking first, it interacts with a lot.
I'm on antidepressants or other medication. Can I take these?
Have a word with your GP or pharmacist first. We'd say that about anything you're on for mood, sleep or blood pressure. And if you're expecting or breastfeeding, same applies.
How long before I notice anything?
These aren't a quick fix. Folk have always taken these over weeks, not days. Give it a proper go before you make your mind up.
And how long will one bottle do me?
Ten days. Sixty tablets, three in the morning and three in the evening. If you're planning to stay on it, the 6-bottle pack works out cheaper.
Learn with Aura
More on stress, mood and the Wood element
Just so we're clear: food supplements aren't a replacement for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, and they aren't meant to diagnose, treat or cure anything.