[4] Sigesbeckia is widely distributed and has been traditionally used for the management of chronic diseases, including arthritis.

Sigesbeckia is named for a botanist Johann Georg Siegesbeck, who was a strong critic of Carl Linnaeus's botanic classification system.

He was known to refer to it as "loathsome harlotry" because of the focus of the system upon the presence of (or lack of) sex organs in plants and their locations and groupings.

Use of Sigesbeckia as a traditional medicine dates back to at least 659 AD, when it was first referenced in Chinese materia medica.

The traditional Chinese medicine is called xi xian cao, and is used to "dispel wind-dampness, to strengthen sinews, and for wind-heat-damp pain obstructions".