The Folk Herb Gougan Cai (Dicliptera chinensis)
Today, a family member from Jiangmen, Guangdong, whose child is suspected of having adrenal neuroblastoma, consulted me. She told me her child (now three and a half) had previously grown a lump on the neck (never confirmed by a hospital), and after a cold with fever later grew five more small lumps.
Once, when they returned to their rural village, an elder used a local herb—gougan cai (Dicliptera chinensis) combined with Baihua Shejialao (Oldenlandia diffusa)—decocted in a 2:1 ratio and given to the child to drink. After one week, the five small lumps on the neck disappeared and the large one shrank by half. After that they stopped giving the tea, and the remaining half of the large lump did not shrink further.
Recently the child was found at the local hospital to have a suspected left adrenal neuroblastoma, and a few days ago another immovable small lump appeared on the back of the neck. The family again used the same method, decocting gougan cai and shejialao for the child; once more, the lumps on the neck showed signs of softening and shrinking.
From the family's description, the child previously seems to have had enlarged cervical lymph nodes; after taking the decoction, the enlarged nodes shrank. Whether the cervical lymphadenopathy was benign or malignant has not been confirmed. But given that after one week of the tea the neck nodes shrank and vanished, it seems more likely that both the earlier and recent cervical enlargements were benign.
I myself had never heard of gougan cai before today; I then looked it up in "Zhonghua Bencao" (Chinese Materia Medica), which records this folk herb on page 457 of volume 7.
Gougan cai is the whole plant of Dicliptera chinensis (family Acanthaceae), mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Jiangxi; only local herbal floras from these regions record it. It is generally considered sweet and slightly bitter in taste, cold in nature, and entering the Heart, Liver, and Lung channels. It clears heat, cools blood, drains dampness, and resolves toxin. It treats colds with fever, maculae in warm disease, and hematemesis, epistaxis, hematuria, hematochezia, and metrorrhagia; cough from lung heat; sore throat; red eyes from liver heat; infantile convulsions; painful dribbling urination; leukorrhea; shingles; abscesses, boils, and deep sores; snake, insect, and dog bites. Lingnan locals call it "local antelope," comparing its heat-dispersing action to that of antelope horn.
Gougan cai is widely used in Guangxi and Fujian. Books such as "Lingnan Caiyao Lu," "Lingnan Herbal Records," "Guangxi Chinese Materia Medica," "Guangxi Common Folk Herbs," "Guangxi Bencao Xuanji," "Guangxi Ethnic Medicines Compendium," and "Fujian Flora Medica" all record it. Yao doctors use it for nephritis; Zhuang doctors for bleeding from knife wounds; Dong doctors for excess gastric acid. In Fujian folk medicine it is used to clear heat and resolve toxin, reduce swelling and relieve pain, treating colds, sore throat, pneumonia, appendicitis, shingles, hypertension, leukorrhea, and mastitis. Thus this herb has broad southern use. In many southern regions it is also brewed as a cooling herbal tea to clear heat and reduce fire.
Ancient TCM materia medica works essentially do not mention gougan cai, showing it to be a regional folk herb that has hitherto attracted little scholarly attention. Although gougan cai may not treat cancer, if it has such rapid effect on benign lymphadenopathy, it is well worth researching.