Maqianzi San: A Chinese Patent Medicine for Unblocking Bi and Relieving Pain
The Chinese herb Maqianzi (Strychni Semen) is a botanical drug that unblocks the collaterals and relieves pain, and dissipates nodules and reduces swelling. In medical texts across the dynasties, many formulas for bi pain and swellings and ulcers contain Maqianzi. But the strychnine in Maqianzi is highly toxic; yet the very reason Maqianzi can treat disease is also related to strychnine, which excites the spinal cord, increases skeletal muscle tone, and has some therapeutic effect on paresis, amblyopia, and tumors.
Under current Chinese law, Maqianzi is a controlled substance and is not sold at ordinary pharmacies. Maqianzi must undergo strict processing before medicinal use; raw Maqianzi is too toxic, with a high fatality rate, and improperly processed Maqianzi has also caused fatal medical accidents. State control of Maqianzi is therefore justified. But properly processed Maqianzi can treat disease. Patients who insist on using Maqianzi may use legally sold Maqianzi-containing Chinese patent medicines, such as Maqianzi San.
Maqianzi San consists of two herbs: processed Maqianzi and Dilong (Pheretima). This formula has another name, Longma Zilai Dan; the formula Longma Zilai Dan appears in famous TCM works such as Yilin Gaicuo and Waike Zhengzhi Quansheng Ji. The ancients used it for epilepsy and wind-damp bi pain. Maqianzi San dispels wind-damp and unblocks the collaterals; it may be used for bi syndrome due to wind-damp obstruction, presenting with joint pain, arm and lower back pain, muscle atrophy of the limbs, and epilepsy. Some patients have also reported that Maqianzi San has some effect on cancer bone metastases, relieving the pain caused by them.
The single dose of Maqianzi San is 0.2 g, and the maximum dose must not exceed 0.4 g. If a patient taking Maqianzi San develops difficulty swallowing, convulsions and restlessness, muscle rigidity, hyperreflexia, twitching, opisthotonus, risus sardonicus, photophobia, sound sensitivity, or abnormal urination, they should stop the drug immediately.
Strychnine is too toxic and poisoning is hard to rescue, so Maqianzi should be avoided if possible; if other drugs can substitute, I do not recommend patients use Maqianzi. The reason I am writing this article about Maqianzi San is that many people still self-treat with Maqianzi (especially raw Maqianzi), causing many medical accidents, and news reports of deaths from Maqianzi appear repeatedly. I hope readers will be cautious when using Maqianzi.