The Anti-Cancer Effects and Side Effects of Tiankuizi (Muskroot-like Semiaquilegia Root)
Tiankuizi, also known as zi bei tiankui zi, is called “thousand-year mouse droppings” in eastern Hubei. It is the tuberous root of Semiaquilegia adoxoides (DC.) Makino of the Ranunculaceae family. I have once dug it up in the wild with my father. Both the Zhongyao Da Cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Materia Medica) and the Zhonghua Bencao (Chinese Materia Medica) have entries for “tiankuizi”; the earliest materia medica work to record tiankui was the Bencao Tujing (Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica) compiled by Su Song of the Song Dynasty.
TCM holds that tiankuizi is sweet in taste, cold in nature, and enters the Liver, Kidney, and Bladder meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, reducing swelling and dissipating nodules, and promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria. It is indicated for carbuncles and swellings, deep-rooted boils, mastitis, scrofula, itchy skin sores, red swollen painful eyes, sore throat, snake and insect bites, heat strangury, and sandy stranguria; it also treats infantile heat convulsions, epilepsy, and various cancers.
Many TCM doctors use tiankuizi when treating tumors, because tiankuizi is one of the herbs in the famous formula “Wu Xiao Du Yin” (Five-Ingredient Detoxification Drink), which I introduced in a previous article “The Famous TCM Formula Wu Xiao Du Yin Has Some Efficacy in Treating Heat-Toxin Type Cancers” (see the link for details). Wu Xiao Du Yin is a formula many doctors commonly use when treating cancer.
Wu Xiao Du Yin comes from the Yizong Jinjian (Golden Mirror of the Medical Tradition) and is used to treat various deep-rooted boils. The original formula is: Jin Yin Hua (Lonicerae Flos) 3 qian, Ye Ju Hua (Chrysanthemi Indici Flos), Pu Gong Ying (Taraxaci Herba), Zi Hua Di Ding (Violae Herba), and zi bei tiankui zi (Semiaquilegiae Radix) each 1 qian 2 fen. Decoction method: two zhong of water, decoct to eight fen. Add half a zhong of lime-free wine, bring to two or three more boils, and take hot. Decoct the residue the same way and take it; cover with a blanket to induce sweating. Lime-free wine is an ancient brewed wine to which no lime or plant ash was added during brewing.
One qian 2 fen in the Qing Dynasty is roughly 5 grams today. The Zhonghua Bencao recommends a dose of 3–9 g, but my usual dose is 10–15 g, occasionally up to 30 g.
The Gujin Yijian (Medical Mirror Ancient and Modern) also records a formula using tiankuizi to treat scrofula (diseases of thyroid enlargement or cervical lymph node enlargement): zi bei tiankui 1 liang 5 qian, Hai Zao (Sargassum), Hai Dai (Ecklonia), Kun Bu (Eckloniae/Thalli Laminariae), and Jie Geng (Platycodi Radix) each 1 liang, Hai Piao Xiao (Sepiae Endoconcha) 5 qian. Grind all together into a fine powder, make into pills with wine paste the size of a parasol tree seed; take 70 pills each time with warm wine after meals. The Kangai Bencao (Anti-Cancer Materia Medica) also records a medicinal-wine formula of tiankuizi for nasopharyngeal and esophageal cancer: grind 500 g of tiankuizi into powder, steep in 5000 g of sorghum wine or millet wine for 7 days; take 50 ml of the tiankui wine three times daily. Longus (sal ammoniac) preparations may also be taken simultaneously. The Jiusheng Ku Hai also uses tiankuizi boiled in wine and drunk to induce sweating, treating scrofula.
In addition, the Zhejiang Minjian Yaocao records a folk remedy of tiankuizi for “scrofula” and “breast cancer”: 1.5 g of zi bei tiankui tuberous root, plus xiang bei (Zhejiang Fritillaria produced in Xiangshan, Zhejiang) 6–9 g, calcified Mu Li (Ostrea Concha) 9–12 g, and Gan Cao (Glycyrrhizae Radix) 3 g; decoct together and take several times.
Folk practice also uses tiankuizi as dietary therapy for intestinal adhesions: take 15 g of tiankuizi and 60 g of lean pork, stew until tender, eat the meat and drink the soup. Intestinal adhesions are one of the common late-stage complications in many patients with pelvic and abdominal tumors.
It can be seen that tiankuizi is a commonly used herb in TCM external medicine; it may also be one of the herbs most frequently prescribed by TCM oncologists, and it is sold in most TCM pharmacies across the country. Reports of tiankuizi poisoning are rare, so it is a very safe herb to use.
Chinese researchers in the 1970s once used tiankuizi injection to treat upper respiratory tract infections in children: among 96 cases treated, 84 were cured, 5 improved, and 7 ineffective. There are also records indicating tiankuizi can be used to treat pediatric asthma. The Miao people also use tiankuizi to treat paronychia (nail ulceration), applying the fresh herb directly after crushing it for external application.