The Anticancer Effects of the Chinese Herb Oldenlandia (Baihua Shebicao)
Baihua Shebicao is the whole herb of Hedyotis diffusa (family Rubiaceae, genus Hedyotis). It is named for its white flowers and leaves shaped like a snake's tongue. It is mainly distributed in southeast and southwest China, and is also known by such names as Sheshecao, Aijiao Sheshecao, Sheshehuang, Mumu Shengzhu Cao, and Jiejie Jiexin Cao.
For a long time this herb was not included in the classic TCM materia medica, but folk medicine in Guangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangxi, and other regions accumulated extensive experience using it to treat various diseases; only in modern times has its clinical efficacy been widely recognized.
Today Baihua Shebicao is one of the most commonly used anticancer herbs in oncology departments. Because some simple folk formulas using Baihua Shebicao and Banzhilian (Scutellaria barbata) to "clear heat and detoxify" circulate widely online, Baihua Shebicao is extremely well known among cancer patients. Of course, these inaccurately repeated folk formulas have also badly misled patients. Many patients have long insisted on boiling Baihua Shebicao and Banzhilian in water to drink, and as a result their liver and kidney function have been affected; some have also damaged their stomachs. Moreover, from what I have seen, cancer patients who succeed in fighting cancer with such simple formulas are exceedingly rare. Still, exaggerated articles and rumors of this kind are periodically exploited by marketing accounts to gain followers—an unavoidable social phenomenon in our new-media age.
In vitro experiments confirm that the water and alcohol extracts of Baihua Shebicao indeed inhibit mouse sarcoma S180, lung cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, cervical cancer, leukemia, and Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. However, in vivo trials on multiple tumors show no significant efficacy. Considering that Baihua Shebicao was positive in vitro only at high concentrations, modern pharmacology regards its antitumor effect as nonspecific.
It should be explained here that many substances show anticancer effects in vitro, yet most lose that effect when tested in vivo. Therefore relying solely on herbs like Baihua Shebicao and Banzhilian to fight cancer is extremely risky and can cause patients to miss the best treatment window.
Most TCM doctors use Baihua Shebicao only as one herb in a formula; few rely on it alone. Based on my years of tracking folk anticancer formulas, their success rate is so low as to be almost negligible. The occasional successful case almost never reproduces its effect in other patients. Meanwhile, experienced anticancer TCM doctors achieve good results even when their formulas contain no such touted "miracle anticancer herbs." So I advise people not to fight cancer relying solely on herbs like Baihua Shebicao.
According to TCM theory of four qi and five flavors, the nature of Baihua Shebicao is summarized as: bitter and sweet in taste, cold in nature; it enters the Heart, Lung, Liver, and Large Intestine meridians. Its actions are clearing heat and detoxifying, draining dampness, and anticancer. It is indicated for cough and wheezing from lung heat, sore throat, intestinal abscess, carbuncles and sores, venomous snake bites, painful hot lin syndrome, edema, dysentery, enteritis, jaundice from damp-heat, and cancerous masses.
Baihua Shebicao enhances immunity. Animal experiments show that its water extract enhances the phagocytic capacity of leukocytes in mouse peritoneal fluid against Staphylococcus albus. Intraperitoneal injection of this herb enhances the proliferative response of mouse splenocytes to concanavalin A and bacterial lipopolysaccharide, increases the number of antibody-secreting cells in the spleen, and enhances delayed-type hypersensitivity and the killing function of cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
In addition, Baihua Shebicao has been shown to protect the gastric mucosa, and it also has antibacterial and antioxidant effects. Besides anticancer and antivenom use, folk medicine employs Baihua Shebicao for pneumonia, lung abscess, urinary tract infection, enteritis, hepatitis B, Helicobacter pylori infection, and gastritis.
Some clinical reports show Baihua Shebicao has a certain effective rate for pneumonia, cholecystitis, appendicitis, chronic colitis, radiation enteritis, epididymal congestion syndrome, cancer fever, cancer pain, and ascites. One scholar treated 48 cases of chronic colitis with Baihua Shebicao, Banzhilian, Baimaogen (Imperatae Rhizoma), and Yiyiren (Coicis Semen), 30 g each: 38 were cured (formed stools, systemic symptoms gone, normal stool microscopy), 8 improved, and 2 ineffective. This is quite a good result, but it was achieved with a compound formula rather than Baihua Shebicao alone.
I also often use Baihua Shebicao as one herb in anticancer formulas, at a usual dose of 10–60 g. According to TCM pattern differentiation, heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs should be used only for cancer patients of the heat-toxin type, and not for those with deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach.