High-Dose Use of Agrimony (Xianhecao) Effectively Raises Platelet Counts
I previously introduced a case I had recently treated of a patient with persistently low platelets after chemotherapy; for details see my article An Account of My Experience Treating a Case of Thrombocytopenia After Chemotherapy.
In that article I mentioned that this patient's platelets were very low after chemotherapy, and I had already tried many methods with poor results. Later I decided to give the patient 100 grams of agrimony (Xianhecao); in fact I also prescribed 100 grams of Chinese maidenhair fern (Fengweicao) at the same time, but because the patient could not obtain the maidenhair fern, in the end I had to use agrimony alone. In only a week's time, the patient's platelets returned to normal. However, because this patient was also using peanut skins she had bought herself while taking the agrimony, I could not rule out whether the rise in platelets had something to do with the peanut skins.
But after gaining this experience, I applied the same method to another leukemia patient in Xi'an, Shaanxi, telling her to brew 100 grams of agrimony in water and drink it; after a week of persistence, this patient's platelets rose rapidly. Her platelets were so low that she needed a platelet transfusion at the local hospital every 1-2 weeks; because transfused platelets survive in the body for only two weeks, without a better way to solve her thrombocytopenia she would have to keep receiving platelet transfusions. Since raising the agrimony dose to 100 grams, this patient no longer needs to rely on platelet transfusions to maintain her blood counts.
With two successful cases in hand, I applied the same method to a third thrombocytopenic patient. This was a child with neuroblastoma whose platelets would not rise for a long time after chemotherapy. I told the child to brew 50 grams of agrimony daily (a pediatric dose) and drink it, and within a week the child's platelets also rose.
By now there were three patients who achieved the same outcome, all after using high-dose agrimony, so it can be confirmed that agrimony is a very good platelet-raising Chinese herb. Because my patients are basically all cancer patients, I can at present only confirm that agrimony has a good effect on thrombocytopenia after chemotherapy in cancer patients. Whether agrimony is also effective against other kinds of thrombocytopenia still needs to be verified by other doctors in clinical practice; I dare not claim more than I know.
The first post-chemotherapy thrombocytopenia patient I treated with 100 grams of agrimony looked up some references herself and shared some information with me; this information shows that some scholars have used agrimony to treat various anemias.
For instance, there are reports that Shenqi Xianbu Decoction (composed mainly of ginseng, astragalus, agrimony, and malaytea scurfpea fruit, Buguzhi) has a marked effect in treating aplastic anemia. Some scholars have also used Shuangsheng Pills (astragalus and agrimony, 50 grams each, combined with a small amount of red dates, deer antler, and atractylodes) to treat aplastic anemia, with good results. Using Compound Longzao Decoction (agrimony 90 g, red dates 50 g) together with Solomon's seal (Huangjing), hawthorn, adzuki bean, suberect spatholobus stem (Jixueteng), and malaytea scurfpea fruit to treat 96 cases of leukopenia, 85 returned to normal, 10 improved, and only 1 was ineffective.
These reports are all on combination formulas, so it is hard to judge agrimony's contribution within them. I used the single herb agrimony to solve the thrombocytopenia problem, which well confirms the platelet-raising effect of single-herb agrimony.
High-dose medication has certain side effects. Although agrimony has very few side effects, when used at 100 grams of the dried herb, some patients do develop discomfort. I previously used 30-50 grams of agrimony on the two patients mentioned above, and the platelet-raising effect was not obvious, so it is certain that agrimony's platelet-raising effect is dose-related. It is just that when the dried agrimony dosage reaches 100 grams, a doctor still needs to pair it with other herbs according to the patient's specific condition to address the underlying disease (such as gastritis); otherwise side effects will still occur. So I hope readers, before using this themselves, consult the Chinese medicine doctor they are seeing and then decide whether to use this approach.