Historical Records on Wild Water Chestnut (Bi Qi) in Treating Liver Cancer

Wild water chestnut (ye bi qi, Sagittaria) is a common malignant weed in southern paddy fields, named for its corm resembling the edible water chestnut (bi qi / Eleocharis dulcis). It is a sedge: stems are erect, tufted and cylindrical, 30-100 cm tall, 4-7 mm in diameter, gray-green. Its corm is smaller than the edible water chestnut, shaped like an abacus bead, and not as sweet and tasty.

Records of wild water chestnut as a medicinal are rare, but Chen Shiduo, a famous Qing physician, recorded it in his materia medica classic Bencao Xinyuan (New Compilation of Materia Medica). He wrote: "Wu yu (an alias for bi qi), sliced and sun-dried, is most effective in medicine for dissipating pi-ji (abdominal glomus masses); used together with bie jia (turtle shell) it is best, and it does not consume genuine qi. Later people did not know it could be used medicinally, so I specially call attention to it. Di li (another alias for bi qi) has cultivated and wild types; for medicinal use the wild type is best. If wild is unavailable, pick the oldest cultivated corms, slice with the skin on and sun-dry; they not only dissipate pi-ji but also ward off miasma."

Few people have noticed Chen Shiduo's record. Chen was from Shaoxing, Zhejiang; the contemporary TCM physician Dong Hanliang is also from Shaoxing. He served as vice president of Xinchang TCM Hospital in Shaoxing and deputy secretary-general of the Shaoxing TCM Society, with over 30 years of clinical practice. He studied the works of his hometown's famous physician Chen Shiduo and noticed this entry.

In 1970, a 56-year-old patient surnamed Yao was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer; doctors in Shanghai and Hangzhou gave him three months to live. The patient sought treatment from Dong Hanliang. Dong did not prescribe other herbs—only wild water chestnut. He had the patient decoct 60-120 g of wild water chestnut daily, drinking the decoction and eating the corms. The patient used this single-herb remedy for six years, until all the wild water chestnut in his local area was harvested. After that he switched to old cultivated water chestnuts as a substitute; he eventually died from rupture of the cancerous mass.

I checked both the Zhongyao Da Cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Materia Medica) and the ten-volume Zhonghua Bencao (Chinese Materia Medica) and found no record of wild water chestnut. I have also seen no other case records using it for liver cancer. Chen Shiduo was famous in his day for outstanding clinical results; his medications were often unconventional, and he was skilled in external medicine—his Dongtian Aozhi is one of the classics of TCM external medicine. His record is unlikely to have been invented.

In this passage he specifically noted that wild water chestnut works better for pi-ji when combined with bie jia. TCM pi-ji does resemble the symptoms of cirrhosis and liver cancer, and bie jia is a commonly used herb for cirrhosis and liver cancer; pharmacological experiments confirm that bie jia treats cirrhosis and has anti-liver-cancer effects. On this evidence, Chen Shiduo's record likely derives from genuine folk therapeutic experience, and Dong Hanliang's case provides an illustration. Dong's use may itself have been influenced by local Shaoxing folk practice.

I record this passage for readers' reference. I hope TCM clinicians among my readers will, when the opportunity arises, try this approach as an adjunctive therapy for liver cancer and cirrhosis and observe its actual clinical efficacy. I would lean toward Chen Shiduo's combination of wild water chestnut with bie jia rather than Dong Hanliang's single-herb use; the combined approach should have a higher response rate.