Hupo Heilong Dan: A Famous Antitumor Formula from Orthodox External Medicine
In the chapter on formulas for goiter and tumors in volume two of Waike Zhengzong (Orthodox External Medicine), there is an internal pellet formula called Hupo Heilong Dan (Amber Black-Dragon Pellet), used to treat "the five goiters and six tumors, regardless of whether new or old, as long as they have not ulcerated"—that is, various unruptured tumors. The formula is as follows: "one liang of amber (Hupo), two liang of dragon's blood (Xuejie), five qian each of jingmo (ink), trogopterus dung (Wulingzhi, stir-fried), kelp (Haida), sargassum (Haizao), and arisaema (Tiannanxing, tossed and stir-fried in ginger juice), three qian of saussurea (Muxiang), and one qian of musk (Shexiang). The above are each ground into a fine powder, mixed and reground, refined with honey into pellets weighing one qian each, coated with gold leaf, dried in the shade, and stored sealed. Use one pellet each time, dissolved in a cup of warm wine; depending on whether the disease is above or below, take it before or after meals. If the lesion is in the lower body, follow the dose with a good meal to press it down."
If made into pellets at today's market prices, this formula would be very expensive; natural musk now costs about ten times the price of gold, and it also requires a gold-leaf coating, so it is beyond the means of an ordinary family. But this formula has some efficacy against various tumors. Nowadays it is mostly used for tumors of the phlegm-stasis intermingling type, presenting as a formed tumor mass that is hard, raised, with exposed blue veins on the skin and rapid growth. The patient may or may not have fever, with reduced eating, progressive emaciation, lusterless complexion, a dusky tongue with thick coating, and a choppy pulse.
The renowned Chinese external-medicine master Duan Futing, in his work Zhongyi Waike Zhengzhi Jingyan (Experience in the Pattern Differentiation and Treatment of Chinese External Medicine), records a case: Wu, female, 31, a cadre. First visit: August 22, 1958. This patient had had pain in both breasts for over 40 days, with a palpable mass forming over the past week and worsening pain recently. She had been examined at two hospitals, both suspecting breast cancer; Western medicine demanded a radical mastectomy, which the patient refused, and she sought Chinese-medicine treatment. Examination showed lumps of about 4 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm in each breast, mobile and slightly tender, with normal overlying skin; three to four small lymph nodes, about 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm, were palpable in each armpit, mobile and non-tender. Master Duan diagnosed Chinese-medicine ru-ru (breast phlegm mass). He applied Qianchui plaster externally, changed every two weeks, and internally administered Hupo Heilong Dan, one qian per pellet, plus Xihuang Wan, one dose each morning. After more than five months of treatment, the hard lumps in both breasts basically disappeared.
The Qianchui plaster used here is also a classic external formula of Chinese medicine, composed mainly of rosin and castor bean. It is made by taking equal amounts (about 1-2 liang) of rosin and castor bean and pounding them on a bluestone—adding castor bean if too dry, rosin if too wet—pounding repeatedly over a thousand times until reduced to an extremely fine powder, which is then spread on the affected area. The castor bean (Bimazi) is a Chinese herb that both purges downward and reduces swelling and dissipates nodules; modern pharmacological research has confirmed that ricin in castor beans has a marked antitumor effect and is highly sensitive to tumor-cell lines and variant cell lines. Chinese external medicine often uses castor beans as an external medicine to apply to various tumors; external medicines are very safe, and the medicinal effect reaches the lesion directly. Rosin (Songxiang) is the resin of the pine, with the effects of activating blood and resolving stasis, and reducing swelling and stopping pain. The Qianchui plaster formed by castor bean and rosin is also a classic famous formula of Chinese external medicine.
Xihuang Wan is the ancestral secret formula of Wang Hongxu, a renowned Qing-dynasty external-medicine physician, and is also a famous antitumor formula; most contemporary oncology masters like to use Xihuang Wan. Regarding the action of Xihuang Wan, I have written a dedicated article On Xihuang Wan, the Famous Chinese Anticancer Medicine, in Detail; readers who wish to understand its efficacy may click the link above to read the details, and I will not repeat them here. Xihuang Wan contains musk and bezoar (Niuhuang); at present Xihuang Wan made with natural musk and bezoar is expensive, beyond the means of ordinary families.
The three medicines Master Duan used are all classic famous formulas of Chinese external medicine for treating tumor-type diseases, so it is no surprise they worked. In Master Duan's case, Hupo Heilong Dan acted in synergy with Xihuang Wan and Qianchui plaster. Master Duan's whole regimen was safe and effective and is worth learning from.
It is a pity only that no manufacturer now produces Hupo Heilong Dan as a patent medicine, making clinical use inconvenient; patients must prepare the medicine themselves according to the ancient formula.
In Hupo Heilong Dan, all the herbs except arisaema (Tiannanxing) are basically non-toxic, and arisaema, after being tossed and stir-fried in ginger juice, also has its toxicity greatly reduced. As for the gold leaf, although expensive, it is basically non-toxic. Unrefined gold contains heavy metals such as mercury and lead and is therefore toxic, but pure gold does not contain these heavy metals; pure gold is chemically very inert and is not converted into gold ions in the gastrointestinal tract, so it is basically non-toxic. The World Health Organization even listed gold as a food additive in 1983, allowing gold leaf to be added to foods such as meat buns, coffee, and cakes. This shows that the traditional Chinese-medicine practice of coating pellets with gold leaf is safe.