Xiaozheng Yigan Tablets: A Chinese Patent Medicine for Primary Liver Cancer
Xiaozheng Yigan Pian (Stasis-Blocking and Liver-Benefiting Tablets) is a Chinese patent medicine. It is not covered by medical insurance and is not an OTC drug; it must be used under a doctor's prescription.
Xiaozheng Yigan Pian are sugar-coated tablets made from an extract of feilian (cockroaches). Once the sugar coating is removed they appear brownish-brown, with a special off-odor and a salty taste. Xiaozheng Yigan Pian break stasis and disperse accumulation, reduce swelling and relieve pain; they provide some relief of symptoms of primary liver cancer and are used as adjunctive therapy. But liver cancer cannot be treated with this one drug alone; if using Chinese patent medicines for liver cancer, consider combining it with Huachansu, Demethylcantharidin, Biejia Ruangan Pian, or Xihuang Wan.
Cockroaches, also called fei, feilian, or feizhe, are used whole: species of the family Blattidae, genus Periplaneta (American cockroach, Australian cockroach) and genus Blatta (Oriental cockroach). In the early Chinese pharmacopoeia Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica), feilian is said to "maintain blood stasis and concrete blocks, cold and heat, break accumulations, close the throat, and treat internal cold causing infertility." That classic records not only its effect on blood stasis and concrete blocks (i.e., tumors in modern medicine) but also on infertility (internal cold causing childlessness). According to the Shennong Bencao Jing, feilian should also treat tonsillitis or epiglottitis (closure of the throat), though the specific method is now lost.
Modern pharmacological research confirms that feilian indeed has antitumor effects. Administered intraperitoneally at 50 g/kg or 25 g/kg for 10 consecutive days, feilian extract markedly inhibited the growth of S180 sarcoma in mice and W256 sarcoma in rats. Total feilian extract at 0.05 mg/ml also significantly inhibited Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells in vitro. Cockroach oil (alcoholic extract) at 0.4 g/kg and 2 g/kg, given intraperitoneally for 10 days, produced tumor inhibition rates of 45% and 50% in S180 mice. Cockroach oil also significantly inhibited human esophageal cancer xenografts.
In ancient China cockroaches were commonly used for unexplained swellings and ascites. For example, the Gangmu Shiyi (Supplement to the Compendium) records a proven formula for drum distention (ascites): one cockroach (dried), a pinch of radish seeds, fried together into powder and swallowed. It also records using cockroaches for various toxic sores: "pound a cockroach with lime and apply"; for ding boils, "take seven large cockroaches, remove head, legs, and shell, pound with a little sugar, and apply around the boil, leaving the head exposed." The Cihang Huoren Shu records a formula for unexplained swellings: "take ten cockroaches and a pinch of salt, pound together and apply." Cockroaches could thus be taken internally or applied externally.
Besides Xiaozheng Yigan Pian, another Chinese patent medicine made from the American cockroach is Kangfuxin Ye (Recovery-Invigorating Liquid), widely used to repair damaged tissue, promote wound healing, and treat skin injuries from trauma, burns, or extravasation of chemotherapy drugs; it is also used for oral and gastric ulcers.