The Anti-Cancer Effects of the Chinese Herb Guijianyu (Euonymus alatus)

Doctor zhou
The Chinese herb Guijianyu is the winged branchlets or winged appendages of Euonymus alatus (Thunb.) Sieb. of the staff-vine family (Celastraceae), also called Guijian, Liuling or Simianfeng. Euonymus alatus grows mainly in mountainous wild country and is distributed in China's Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hebei, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong and the Northeast.
TCM has used Guijianyu as medicine since early times. The Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica) records of Guijianyu: “It mainly treats women's flooding and vaginal bleeding, abdominal fullness and sweating, expels evils, and kills ghost-poisons and gu-attack.” “Flooding and vaginal bleeding” closely resembles the clinical symptoms of vaginal bleeding caused by modern medical conditions such as uterine fibroids or cervical cancer, showing that Chinese physicians in antiquity used Guijianyu to treat benign and malignant tumors a long time ago.
According to traditional TCM theory, Guijianyu is bitter and pungent in taste and cold in nature, and enters the liver and spleen meridians. It breaks blood and unblocks the channels, resolves toxins and reduces swelling, and kills parasites. It is mainly used for abdominal concretions and gatherings, chest and abdominal pain, amenorrhea, flooding and spotting, postpartum stasis abdominal pain, lochioschesis, postpartum agalactia, hernia, migratory joint bi-pain, sores and swellings, traumatic injuries, abdominal pain from intestinal parasites, burns and scalds, venomous snake bites, rheumatic pain, dry cough and common cold.
Guijianyu has a strong blood-activating and stasis-resolving action. The Bencao Fengyuan (Origin of the Materia Medica) says of it: “It specifically disperses evil blood; hence the Bencao Jing has the treatment of flooding and vaginal bleeding. The Bielu treats central-evil abdominal pain, expels white worms, and disperses wind-toxin swelling of the skin—that is, the treatment of abdominal fullness and sweating. Modern people use it for thief-wind and migratory joint bi, and for postpartum blood syncope in women, where blood congeals and gathers in the chest or settles in the flanks, ribs or lower abdomen; use Siwu Tang with doubled Danggui, add Guijianyu, Honghua (safflower) and Yuanhu (Corydalis) and decoct for oral use, because its nature specifically breaks blood and is powerful enough to induce abortion.”
Thus activating blood and resolving stasis, reducing swelling and dissipating nodules are Guijianyu's main actions, and it was a commonly used herb in ancient gynecology and obstetrics. But the many ancient methods of treating gynecological conditions had historical limitations and were not very safe, so modern physicians rarely use similar herbs for pregnant or postpartum women. Modern obstetric and gynecological care is already excellent, and postpartum diseases are no longer as common as they once were.
The anti-tumor effect of Guijianyu has been confirmed by modern pharmacological experiments. Its main component, 1,2,5,6-dulcitol, has varying degrees of activity against sarcoma S180 cells cultured in vitro and against ten tumor strains in vivo, including W250 and L1210. In addition, Guijianyu also regulates blood lipids, lowers blood glucose, counteracts thrombosis, and enhances the nutrient blood flow of the myocardium.
TCM considers Guijianyu non-toxic, but mouse experiments show its LD50 is about 10 mg/kg, so Guijianyu does have a certain toxicity and should not be used in large doses. When Guijianyu is added to a decoction, the usual adult dose is 3–10 g; used at this dose it is safe, and at this dose it also has no obvious mutagenic or carcinogenic effect on cells.
When using Guijianyu to activate blood and resolve stasis, or reduce swelling and dissipate nodules, it may be combined with other blood-activating and stasis-resolving herbs such as Chishao (red peony), Sumu (sappanwood), Honghua (safflower) and Danggui, or used alone. Guijianyu also has some efficacy in treating skin diseases; washing the affected area with a decoction of Guijianyu's branches and leaves combined with ginkgo leaves can treat lacquer dermatitis. There are clinical reports that taking a decoction of Guijianyu and Gancao (licorice) by mouth has a good effect on allergy caused by hair dye.
There is another Chinese herb called Guiyujian (not Guijianyu); it is not the same medicine. Guiyujian is the whole plant of Blackia cruciata of the figwort family (Scrophulariaceae); its effect is to clear heat, detoxify, cool the blood and stop bleeding, and no literature records it as having anti-cancer action.

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