The Anthelmintic, Anti-Cancer, Anti-Leukemia, and Hemostatic Effects of Guanzhong (Dryopteris Rhizome)
The Chinese medicinal Guanzhong is the rhizome and residual leafstalk of Dryopteris crassirhizoma of the Dryopteridaceae family, mainly produced in Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Gansu, and elsewhere. Guanzhong entered medical use early; it is already recorded in Shennong Bencao Jing, the earliest TCM materia medica, which lists Guanzhong as a lower-grade herb—a drug that treats disease but has slight toxicity and should not be taken in large amounts or for long periods.TCM holds that Guanzhong is bitter and astringent in taste, slightly cold in nature, and enters the liver and stomach meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and resolving toxin, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, and killing parasites; it mainly treats wind-heat colds, warm-heat macules, hematemesis, epistaxis, hematochezia, metrorrhagia, bloody dysentery, leukorrhea, and intestinal parasites such as hookworm, roundworm, and tapeworm.Guanzhong indeed has a good anthelmintic effect. The filmaron-type substances contained in the male fern are strongly toxic to tapeworms, paralyzing them so they cannot attach to the intestinal wall; they can then be expelled with a laxative. Guanzhong decoction has an inhibitory and relaxing effect on the head of Ascaris. Animal experiments also show that Guanzhong promotes the liver migration of, and kills, Schistosoma in mice and rabbits. That is why Shennong Bencao Jing says it can "kill the three worms." Guanzhong also has an anti-early-pregnancy effect and was used in ancient times as an abortifacient.Guanzhong is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial botanical drug. Modern pharmacological research shows that Guanzhong has antiviral activity against influenza viruses of various types, hepatitis B virus, adenovirus, poliomyelitis virus, echovirus, coxsackievirus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and herpes simplex virus, and it also inhibits bacteria such as Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus, and Staphylococcus aureus.So ancient TCM held that Guanzhong can "resolve epidemic qi of seasonal disease." Whenever a plague raged, the ancients would put Guanzhong into their water vat; drinking this water was believed to prevent catching the infectious disease. During this COVID epidemic, among the TCM doctors I know, some used Guanzhong as the main herb to treat novel coronavirus infection, reportedly with good results. In modern times there have also been methods of taking Guanzhong alone in decoction to prevent influenza, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, measles, and other infectious diseases.Guanzhong is also an ideal anti-leukemia and anti-tumor drug. Guanzhong has a very good hemostatic effect, so it has a fairly obvious symptom-relieving effect on malignant tumors and leukemias with bleeding symptoms, such as lung cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, brain tumors, sarcoma, colorectal cancer, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma; modern pharmacological research also shows that Guanzhong extracts have anti-tumor activity.There are especially many TCM formulas using Guanzhong to stop bleeding; Guanzhong treats various bleeding syndromes such as hematemesis, hemoptysis, epistaxis, hematochezia, and metrorrhagia.Shengji Zongluo combines Guanzhong with Huanglian (Coptis) to treat sudden vomiting and cough of blood; Wanjing Huichun uses Guanzhong with charcoal of human hair and Cebaiye (Biota tip) to treat hematemesis by the dou, with life hanging by a thread, both using Guanzhong as an emergency drug; Haishangfang and Furen Liangfang both use Guanzhong alone to treat metrorrhagia in women (i.e., functional uterine bleeding, cervical cancer bleeding, etc.) and persistent postpartum bleeding with red and white leukorrhea; Puji Fang combines Guanzhong, Jingjisui (schizonepeta spike), Baifan (alum), and Zhuya-zaojiao (tooth-pod soap) to treat intestinal-wind hematochezia (i.e., bleeding from intestinal diseases such as colorectal cancer and hemorrhoids); the Guanzhong San in Yangshi Jiazang Fang uses Huanglian together with Guanzhong to treat persistent bloody dysentery; Bencao Tujing takes Guanzhong as powder mixed with water to treat epistaxis (i.e., nosebleed from various causes); in modern times there are also hemostatic drugs made from Guanzhong—for example, Liaoning Provincial Hospital Preparation Standards includes hemostatic tablets made from 150g charred Guanzhong, 64g Haipiaoxiao (cuttlebone), and 15g Ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin); this formula has the functions of astringing to stop bleeding and enriching blood, and can be used for uterine flooding in women, menstrual leakage, hematuria, hematochezia, hematemesis, and similar conditions.Leukemia often presents with skin purpura, which traditional TCM calls "warm toxin emitting macules"; it is in fact subcutaneous bleeding. Guanzhong is an ideal medicinal for treating warm-toxin macules; combined with Daqingye (folium isatidis), Banlangen (isatis root), Shengma (Cimicifuga), and Chishao (red peony), it has a good effect on subcutaneous bleeding caused by leukemia and allergic purpura. The Kuai Ban Tang recorded in Xiaoer Weisheng Zongwei Lun Fang is composed of one liang of Guanzhong, one liang of Chishao, half a qian of Gancao (licorice), half a qian of Shengma, and half a qian of Zhiqiao (bitter orange), all made into powder; before each dose, decoct with a small cup of water and seven bamboo leaves down to five fen, and take warm.So Guanzhong is a specific for cases with both heat-toxin and bleeding symptoms; it both clears heat and resolves toxin and stops bleeding. Guanzhong can also relieve the heat-toxin caused by radiotherapy and has a certain therapeutic effect on thrombocytopenia caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients.Guanzhong does have a certain toxicity, but animal experiments show that, when used at conventional doses, Guanzhong injection and water decoction caused no adverse reactions apart from mild-to-moderate cloudy swelling of renal tubular epithelium in individual dogs, interstitial congestion, and cloudy swelling and mild stasis of stem cells. However, because Guanzhong has a certain anti-early-pregnancy and pregnancy-terminating effect, it is contraindicated in pregnant women.