The Common Anticancer Herbs: Ruxiang (Frankincense) and Moyo (Myrrh)
Ruxiang (frankincense) and moyo (myrrh) are resins of two trees of the Burseraceae family—the frankincense tree and the myrrh tree—native to Somalia and Ethiopia in Africa as well as to India. As early as more than 2,000 years ago they were carried along the Silk Road to China, though at that time they were used mainly as incense. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that Chinese physicians discovered their remarkable medicinal effects and incorporated them into Chinese materia medica.
Thus our Chinese medicine has never been closed; from ancient times to the present it has widely absorbed medicinal materials and therapeutic experiences from all over the world for clinical use.
Frankincense and myrrh are very similar in medicinal properties, and the two are also often used mutually to reinforce each other. When frankincense and myrrh are taken in equal parts and made into a powder, they form a classic famous formula of Chinese medicine—Haifu San (Sea-Floating Powder). Haifu San is a famous formula for treating carbuncles and sores, removing necrotic tissue and promoting new growth. Yangyi Daquan (A Complete Compendium on External Medicine) holds that Haifu San has the action of, for carbuncles, "drawing pus outward while the toxin remains, and closing the wound once the toxin is gone."
Frankincense and myrrh are also the main ingredients of famous anticancer Chinese formulas Xihuang Wan and Xingxiao Wan. Besides frankincense and myrrh, Xihuang Wan also requires Shexiang (musk) and Niuhuang (bezoar). But musk and bezoar are too precious, so most manufacturers now use artificial musk and artificial bezoar, and the result is not very effective. Only Beijing Tongrentang produces Xihuang Wan using natural musk and natural bezoar, but the price is then too high. So the author himself often combines frankincense and myrrh with other, cheaper medicinal materials to replace the traditional Xihuang Wan; otherwise most cancer-afflicted families simply could not afford it.
In ancient times, however, because transport costs were so high and frankincense and myrrh had to travel all the way from Africa or the Middle East, they were very expensive, and ordinary families could not afford them either. In the Song-dynasty treatise Xiuan Lishang Xuduan Mifa (Immortal-Transmitted Secrets for Setting Fractures and Healing Wounds) by Lin Daoren, frankincense and myrrh are frequently used as bone-setting and wound-healing medicines. Lin Daoren repeatedly notes in the book that if a patient's family is truly too poor to afford frankincense and myrrh, fan-jiangzhen and fengxiang (Liquidambar resin) may be used as substitutes, though he also notes that these substitutes are not as effective.
It is clear that frankincense and myrrh were very precious medicinal materials in those days. In modern times, however, because of improved transportation, they are no longer as costly as in ancient times, though they are still more expensive than ordinary medicinal materials.
Both frankincense and myrrh are resinous drugs. Resins dissolve poorly in water, so they are less effective in decoction than in pills and powders. Ancient Chinese medicine did indeed distinguish the use of pills, powders, plasters, and elixirs from that of decoctions. But many modern doctors, for convenience, boil herbs that should be used in pills, powders, plasters, or elixirs right into the decoction. This not only affects efficacy but also spoils the taste of the decoction. A decoction using frankincense and myrrh does great harm to the patient's stomach, because these two herbs taste terrible when boiled and irritate the stomach too strongly.
Using frankincense and myrrh in pills or powders also requires care. These two resinous herbs are extremely hard to pulverize. When the traditional copper mill is used to crush them, most of the frankincense and myrrh ends up sticking to the mill wall and is hard to scrape off; modern pulverizers also find them difficult to grind.
In the past, frankincense and myrrh were roasted on ruo leaves to dry out their oils before being ground. But some scholars hold that it is precisely the volatile oils in frankincense and myrrh that carry the main analgesic effect, and that after processing they lose these oils and their pain-relieving effect declines. Generally speaking, frankincense and myrrh are still recommended to be processed before internal use, while for external application they must be used raw.
According to traditional Chinese medical theory, frankincense is pungent, bitter, and warm, entering the liver, heart, and spleen meridians. Myrrh is pungent, bitter, and neutral, also entering the liver, heart, and spleen meridians. Their effects are basically similar: both "invigorate blood and stop pain, reduce swelling and promote tissue generation."
Frankincense additionally moves qi, while myrrh does not. Both frankincense and myrrh have a strongly pungent odor and greatly irritate the stomach, easily causing nausea and vomiting, so they should not be taken in large doses internally. Or, if a large dose is needed, they must be combined with stomach-strengthening, antiemetic herbs.
Patients with weak digestion suffer strong side effects from Chinese medicines containing frankincense and myrrh. Patients who have taken Xihuang Wan and developed severe discomfort often come to consult the author. In addition, because frankincense and myrrh invigorate blood, they are contraindicated in pregnant women.
Among blood-activating herbs, frankincense and myrrh have a relatively pronounced analgesic effect, which is why Haifu San is such a famous blood-activating, pain-relieving formula. Frankincense and myrrh are mainly used to treat traumatic injuries, stasis-related pain, painful swelling of carbuncles and sores, and chronic non-healing ulcers after sores have ruptured.
Modern pharmacology has confirmed that frankincense has a clear analgesic effect, can suppress inflammation, accelerate the excretion and absorption of inflammatory exudate, and promote wound healing. It can markedly reduce the gastric mucosal damage and stress-induced mucosal injury caused by aspirin, phenylbutazone, and reserpine, and lower the ulcer index of pylorus-ligation and the free acidity of gastric juice. It also has immunosuppressive, antitumor, and anti-early-pregnancy effects.
Myrrh, on the other hand, can improve microcirculation and the aggregation state of red blood cells, markedly reduce blood viscosity and plasma viscosity, and inhibit platelet aggregation. It has analgesic, anti-inflammatory, lipid-lowering, antithrombotic, and antitumor actions.
Frankincense has wind-dispersing action, so it is commonly used in treating urticarial itchy rashes and lockjaw after stroke. Myrrh can scatter heat in the blood of the liver meridian; since the liver opens into the eyes, myrrh is clinically used more often in ophthalmic diseases. For example, Zhitong Moyo San in Yanke Longmu Lun and Moyo San in Yinhai Jingwei both use myrrh to treat eye trauma or upward attack of liver heat, blood filling the pupil as an external obstruction, eye pain, or purulent discharge from the eye.
Besides treating carbuncles and sores, frankincense and myrrh are used mainly in orthopedics and traumatology; many of the bone-setting and wound-healing formulas used in orthopedics contain frankincense and myrrh. In addition, frankincense and myrrh are two herbs frequently used for patients with coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia. In treating such diseases, they are most often used mutually to reinforce each other.