A Common Hemostatic Herb for Cancer Patients: Baiji (Bletilla Rhizome)

Bleeding is one of the most common symptoms in cancer patients: hemoptysis in lung cancer, hematemesis in gastric cancer, bloody stools in bowel cancer, and vaginal bleeding in cervical and ovarian cancer, among others, are all frequently seen clinically.

Generally, bleeding of various kinds in terminal cancer patients is an ominous sign. Major bleeding in end-stage patients usually means survival will be short, the remaining days numbered.

But some patients with a relatively better prognosis also bleed: when a tumor reaches a certain stage, ulceration of the tumor, or a tumor so large that surrounding tissue ulcerates, causes bleeding.

Some patients develop various bleedings after taking too much blood-activating, stasis-resolving medicine. All these can be treated for hemostasis by oral or topical Chinese medicine.

Incidentally, for patients whose tumor has grown quite large or sits at a critical site, I advise against casually using blood-activating, stasis-resolving herbs, especially large doses of Sanqi (Panax notoginseng); such patients often come to grief with them.

I have clinically used a number of hemostatic herbs with good effect; I write this to introduce them for readers.

First recommended is Baiji (Bletillae Rhizoma). It is the hemostatic herb I have personally used most; at an adequate dose it has rarely disappointed me.

But Baiji's great drawback is its cost. Its price has soared in recent years; retail now several yuan per gram, so large doses are beyond many poor patients.

There was once a lung-cancer patient with massive hemoptysis, each bout frighteningly large, treated at a Grade-A Tertiary hospital in Xi'an. Every Western hemostatic measure failed, and the hospital told the family to take him home lest he die on the way.

The family reached me through a comrade-in-arms and asked me to help. I told them at once to decoct 30g of Baiji and give it to the patient. After only one day the bleeding was greatly reduced. Later I saw the patient in person, prescribed a compound containing Baiji, and after a period the hemoptysis basically stopped.

Another lung-cancer patient was treated for a time at Beijing's Guang'anmen Hospital without relief of hemoptysis. He came to me; I added 30g of Baiji to the formula. At first the pharmacy thought the dose too large and refused to sell it.

The family, reluctantly reducing the dose to 10g, got little effect. On my insistence they finally obtained 30g, and on the day he took it, the hemoptysis eased.

There was also a patient with a giant facial lymphoma (visibly as big as a small muskmelon), bleeding relentlessly because the tumor was so large, with ulcerated skin and a foul smell. It was summer; flies swarmed over the ulcer and maggots even grew there; the sight was pitiable.

I told the patient's son to cook a strong concentrate of large-dose Sheng Huangqi (raw Astragalus) combined with Baiji, giving the patient a spoonful from time to time. After a few days the ulcer healed and the bleeding stopped. I then prescribed other decoctions and patent medicines for comprehensive treatment, which also eased his suffering for a time.

Recently a breast-cancer patient had an ulcer on the chest as large as a bowl. On the basis of pattern differentiation I prescribed a comprehensive formula and also had the patient make pills from Xiyangshen (American ginseng), Sheng Huangqi and Baiji in a certain ratio, refined with honey; this also eased the ulcer lesion.

If Baiji is ground to powder and swallowed, or made into pills, the clinical dose can be much reduced, greatly cutting the patient's cost. If bleeding is already heavy and anemia severe, when making Baiji into powder or pills one may also add suitable amounts of Huangqi and Renshen (ginseng) or Xiyangshen to tonify blood and secure the root, preventing collapse from blood loss.

Baiji was once an important ingredient in battlefield wound medicines; it stops bleeding extremely fast. Modern pharmacological experiments show that after punching a hole in a dog's stomach and instilling a Baiji preparation, the hole is sealed at once.

The Qing physician Wang Ang's Bencao Beiyao records a story: in Taizhou a prison guard pitied a condemned prisoner, who, moved, told him a secret: "I have committed capital crimes seven times and endured torture, each time injuring my lungs. I obtained a formula: take Baiji powder daily with rice soup; its effect is like a spirit"—i.e., taking Baiji powder with rice water to treat lung injury from torture. Later, when the prisoner was executed by lingchi, his chest was opened and dozens of holes in the lungs were all plugged with Baiji.

Modern science finds Baiji suitable as a strong adhesive. In the past, some ethnic groups in Guangxi used Baiji as a binder when dyeing cloth with indigo. Now its industrial uses are also broad; people gradually produce Baiji gum as a strong adhesive, so demand and price have kept soaring.

But Baiji is not easy to cultivate artificially. My father tried growing it in our hometown, without much success, and is still experimenting. Its price may rise further; as a doctor prescribing it for poor patients, cost must be considered.

Baiji not only stops bleeding but is itself a good anti-tumor herb. Modern experiments show that Baiji glucose injection markedly inhibits liver cancer in rats; the active anti-cancer component is the mucilage in the tuber. This mucilage inhibits not only liver cancer but many tumors.

The TCM Shennong Bencao Jing records that Baiji "governs welling-abscesses, evil sores and decaying flat ulcers, damaged yin and dead muscle, and evil qi in the stomach." The Rizhu Bencao further shows that Baiji also treats luoli (i.e., scrofula/lymph node tuberculosis and lymphoma).

Baiji is also an important herb for pulmonary tuberculosis. For some patients with grade 1–2 tuberculosis who do not respond to anti-tuberculous drugs, taking Baiji powder with rice water, or cooking Baiji with glutinous rice into porridge and persisting for months, achieves clinical cure in a fair number.