Huaihuang Pills for Hematochezia and Huaijin Pills for Hematuria
Huaihuang Wan (Huaihuang Pills) is recorded in Gu Jin Yi Jian (Ancient and Modern Medical Mirror). It is composed of 120 g (4 liang) of Huanglian (Coptis Rhizoma, wine-fried) and 120 g (4 liang) of Huaihua (Sophora Flower, fried). Preparation: take the two herbs, place them inside a pig's large intestine about one chi (approx. 33 cm) long. Then tie both ends of the pig's intestine with thread, add water and boil together until the pig's intestine is thoroughly cooked. Remove the herbs from the intestine, pound them into pills the size of a parasol tree seed, and dry in the sun or oven.
Take 80 pills each time, on an empty stomach with rice water, twice a day. Huaihuang Wan clears heat and dries dampness, cools the blood and stops bleeding. It treats intestinal wind, visceral toxin, hematochezia, and hemorrhoidal fistula.
Huaijin Wan (Huaijin Pills) is recorded in Sheng Ji Zong Lu (General Records of Holy Imperial Benevolence). It is composed of equal parts of Huaihua (Sophora Flower, fried) and Yujin (Curcuma Root). Preparation: grind the herbs into a powder or make into pills. Take 6 g (2 qian) each time, washed down with a decoction of Mutong (Akebia Stem), regardless of meals. Huaijin Wan cools the blood and stops bleeding; it chiefly treats hematuria.
Both pill formulas contain Huaihua. Huaihua is the flower of the pagoda tree; its flower buds are called Huaimi (Sophora buds), and both are used medicinally. Traditional TCM holds that Huaihua cools the blood and stops bleeding, and clears liver fire, and is used for various bleedings caused by blood-heat reckless movement and for headache and red eyes caused by liver fire flaring upward. Modern pharmacological research finds that Huaihua has a relatively strong hemostatic effect, reduces vascular permeability, and also lowers blood pressure, dilates coronary arteries, lowers blood lipids, and has anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, anti-ulcer, anti-radiation, and mild laxative effects.
In Huaihuang Wan, Huaihua is paired with Huanglian. The berberine (berberine hydrochloride) contained in Huanglian is a common drug for treating enteritis and diarrhea. Besides treating enteritis, berberine also has antiviral, antihypertensive, antiarrhythmic, anti-ulcer, hepatoprotective and cholagogic, hypoglycemic, and antitumor effects. TCM holds that Huanglian is bitter and cold; it clears heat and dries dampness, purges fire and resolves toxicity, and is commonly used for damp-heat chest fullness, vomiting and diarrhea, jaundice, and high fever with coma.
The pairing of Huaihua with Huanglian has a certain therapeutic effect on intestinal inflammation and bleeding caused by bowel diseases. The reason the herbs are boiled in a pig's large intestine is the TCM concept of "using shape to supplement shape." Hematochezia is generally caused by intestinal diseases, most often hemorrhoids, and sometimes by intestinal tumors. Therefore, medicine prepared by boiling in pig's large intestine works better for treating intestinal diseases.
Yujin in Huaijin Wan activates blood and stops pain, moves qi and relieves stagnation, and cools blood and stops bleeding. It can treat blood-heat spitting of blood, epistaxis, hematuria, and inverted menstruation in women. The combination of Huaihua and Yujin being effective for hematuria is therefore no surprise. This kind of hematuria is mostly caused by urinary system diseases, and Huaijin Wan has a symptom-relieving effect on it.
In addition, clinical observation has found that combining Huaihua with Huangqin (Scutellaria Root) can treat hypertension. Brewing equal parts of Huaihua and Huangqin as tea (adjusted to a reasonably moderate taste) has a certain effect on patients with hypertension and hyperglycemia.