The Anti-Inflammatory, Antibacterial and Anti-Cancer Effects of Sijiqing (Ilex Leaves)
Sijiqing (Four-Season Green) is an anti-cancer medicine commonly used by doctors in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. It is the leaf of the Chinese holly (Ilex chinensis), a plant of the Ilex genus in the Aquifoliaceae family; hence it is also called holly leaf (Bencao Shiyi), commonly known as four-season-green leaf, and in the Guangxi region it is called yikouxue ("one mouthful of blood"). Many folk practitioners use Sijiqing to fight cancer, and it also commonly appears in the prescriptions of doctors in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region.Sijiqing has very good antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects; catechin in Sijiqing is its main antibacterial component. The aqueous extract of Sijiqing inhibits various pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus, and Staphylococcus aureus. Its antibacterial action is stable, absorbed completely, and after in vivo metabolism it still exerts a therapeutic effect in the urine. Sijiqing is also one of the few Chinese medicines that can cross the blood-brain barrier. After the concentrated decoction of Sijiqing is absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, it quickly distributes to the organs and tissues of the body; the highest content is in the kidney, followed by the brain, liver and heart, but the action of this drug in the body lasts only about 2 hours.Therefore Sijiqing is widely used to treat various infectious diseases. TCM holds that it clears heat and resolves toxin; it can treat colds with fever, cough due to lung heat, sore swollen throat, pneumonia, tracheitis, tonsillitis, prostatitis, mastitis, cervicitis, myelitis, dysentery, enteritis with diarrhea, biliary tract infection, urinary tract infection, burns and scalds, heat-toxin sores and swellings, lower-extremity ulcers, leprosy ulcers, eczema, and thromboangiitis obliterans, among others.Sijiqing also has the functions of activating blood and stopping bleeding, and engendering flesh and healing sores. The Qingzhou Zhongcaoyao Shouce records that holly leaves burned to ash, mixed with an appropriate amount of Vaseline and flour to make an ointment and applied topically, can treat chapped skin and scars. The Jiangxi Caoyao records local use of crushed holly leaves applied externally to stop bleeding. The Zhejiang Yaoyong Zhiwu Zhi records that Sijiqing can treat burns and scalds.Sijiqing can also be used to treat leprosy ulcers and lower-extremity ulcers; Sijiqing emulsion for lower-extremity ulcers can promote wound healing and epidermal regeneration. Using Sijiqing emulsion to treat leprosy ulcers can achieve a cure rate of over 90%.Protocatechuic acid in Sijiqing also has anti-cancer effects; animal experiments show it has a mild inhibitory effect on experimental HF sarcoma and sarcoma S180. For cancer patients, the anti-cancer effect may not be the main thing; the heat-clearing and toxin-resolving effect of Sijiqing can reduce the pain caused by inflammatory and immune reactions in heat-toxin-type cancer patients.The author has seen many people in Zhejiang folk practice use Sijiqing to treat advanced cancer; the patients' cancer fever, cancer pain and malignant ascites can be relieved to some extent, though for the time being no case has been seen in which Sijiqing alone successfully eliminated a tumor. Clinical reports on such cases are also very few, so patients should not rely on Sijiqing alone to treat cancer.The usual dose of Sijiqing is 15–30g. Sijiqing has very low toxicity; animal experiments show its lethal dose is over a hundred times the usual adult dose, so using it at the usual dose carries little risk. At a large dose, Sijiqing can be used at 60–100g, also with little risk. When Sijiqing is combined with Daqingye (Isatidis Folium), its heat-clearing and toxin-resolving effect is even more pronounced.The unique effects of Sijiqing can also be used to treat ulceration and rotting of the skin in cancer patients caused by chemotherapy or other reasons. Sijiqing cream can be applied externally, or crushed Sijiqing can be applied directly.