The Chinese Herb Sanbaicao Root: Anti-Cancer, Water-Disinhibiting and Blood-Sugar-Lowering

Sanbaicao (Saururi Herba/Rhizoma) is an uncommon Chinese medicinal, but its history of use in medicine is long. As early as Zhouhou Bei Ji Fang (Empimeric Formulations for Emergencies), its action on edema was recorded: "For beriberi with the lower leg already swollen, leaving a finger-print on pressure—take Sanbai root, pound it, and take with wine." We see that in Zhouhou Fang, Sanbai was used as the raw root, taken with yellow wine. Its indication was severe edema; judging from the description, it closely resembles lower-extremity lymphedema or the leg edema of terminal ascites. The patient's legs were already very swollen, leaving a deep pit when pressed; the ancients had found that such edema could be treated with Sanbai root alone.

Professor Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine after being inspired by the Zhouhou Fang record of Qinghao treating malaria to discover artemisinin. Many formulas in Zhouhou Fang are highly practical, with distinctly folk-style administration. Qinghao was squeezed for juice and taken; Sanbai root was pounded and taken with wine. Such methods differ from our usual decoction, and avoid destroying active constituents through heating. So patients with the means may follow the Zhouhou Fang method when using Sanbaicao root.

So what kind of plant is Sanbaicao? It is nicknamed "pond-side lotus root" and is widely distributed across northern, central and southern China, mostly growing by the water. Its rhizome looks very like lotus root, hence the name. It has several other nicknames—earth lotus root, hundred-joint lotus root, pond-crossing lotus root, water lotus root, white lotus root, nine-joint lotus root. The medicinal part is the rhizome, which is cylindrical, slightly curved, branched and jointed like lotus root, with fibrous roots at the nodes. Most people who have lived in the countryside know this herb and its root. When washed and chewed, the root tastes sweet; when I herded cattle as a child, my playmates and I often dug up Sanbaicao roots to eat.

The Dictionary of Chinese Materia Medica records that Sanbaicao has a therapeutic effect on diabetes. Animal experiments confirm that single and continuous doses of Sanbaiqiu sugar have a clear blood-sugar-lowering effect in diabetic mouse models, raising superoxide dismutase and lowering malondialdehyde—showing that Sanbaicao plays a positive role in both preventing and treating diabetes.

Traditional TCM four-qi and five-flavor theory holds that Sanbaicao "is sweet and pungent in flavor and cold in qi." Following the TCM principle "treat heat with cold," it suits heat patterns. Sanbaicao's actions are to disinhibit water and drain dampness, and clear heat and resolve toxin. It treats beriberi, edema, stranguria with turbid discharge, leukorrhea, welling-abscesses, boils, scabies and tinea, and wind-damp heat bi. Today it is mostly used for edema, urinary calculi, profuse leukorrhea, rheumatic bi pain, eczema, scrotal eczema and nephritic edema.

The renowned TCM anti-cancer specialist Qian Bowen often used it for ascites. Sanbaicao for damp-heat-type liver-cancer ascites may be combined with Daji root (Cirsii Japonici Radix), Baihuasheshecao (Hedyotidis Herba), Banzhilian (Scutellariae Barbatae Herba) and Shishangbai (Selaginellae Doederleinii Herba). Pharmacological experiments also confirm Sanbaicao's anti-cancer action; the root inhibits Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi.

Using Sanbaicao root for ascites and tumors is recorded in ancient Chinese medical texts. Tang Bencao (Tang Materia Medica) held that Sanbaicao "maintains edema and beriberi, facilitates urination and defecation, dissolves phlegm and breaks accumulations (many of what ancient TCM called 'accumulations' were digestive-tract and gynecological tumors), and dissipates boils and swellings."

Folk medicine commonly uses Sanbaicao root for cough with profuse phlegm, better combined with Qianhu (Peucedani Radix), Xingren (Armeniacae Semen) and Fuercao (Gnaphalii Herba); for beriberi edema, better with Fuling, Yiyiren and Zexie; for boils and welling-abscesses, better with Jinyinhua, Lianqiao, Pugongying, Zihuadiding and Tiankuizi.

For internal use, the dry Sanbaicao root is usually 9–15 g; for pleural effusion, ascites, pelvic effusion and lymphedema, the dose may be increased to 30–60 g. The fresh product is more effective and may be used at 30–150 g: wash it clean, pound it and drink the juice directly, or stew it with meat.

In Hunan and elsewhere, for leg edema in pregnancy, Sanbaicao root 90 g stewed with meat is commonly used. Jiangxi Folk Herbs records Jiangxi locals taking Sanbaicao root 30 g decocted in rice-washing water for blood stranguria (i.e., urinary calculi). Fujian Medicinal Records records fresh Sanbaicao rhizome 60 g boiled with lean pork 60 g; eating it treats profuse leukorrhea. One may also pound Sanbaicao root, add some cooked glutinous rice, and apply externally for lymphangitis. Or boil Sanbaicao root 60 g with Baitenghua (Ampelopsis Cantoniensis Flos) 60 g in wine and water for rheumatic arthritis. Fujian Chinese Herbs records using an appropriate amount of fresh Sanbaicao root and tofu, decocted and taken, with the dregs pounded and applied to the lesion, for acute mastitis. People in Guangxi commonly use fresh Sanbaicao root for various ulcers. There are also folk prescriptions in which Sanbaicao root is boiled with pig's trotters to promote lactation postpartum.

Sanbaicao is best used fresh, but most modern people live in cities, where gathering fresh root is impractical, so the dried product is mostly used. Although most Chinese-medicine shops and hospital dispensaries do not stock Sanbaicao, online shopping is now convenient: one can buy the dried root, and in summer and autumn even the fresh root.

Finally, Sanbaicao is non-toxic. As a child I ate quite a lot of the root; chewed, it is sweet and pleasant, like water-chestnut juice. I believe many people raised in the countryside have eaten Sanbaicao root; I have never seen anyone poisoned by it. So it is an ideal water-disinhibiting, anti-cancer herb, especially suited to patients with both edema and diabetes.