Indications of Zhu Danxi’s Da Bu Yin Wan (Major Yin-Tonifying Pills)
Zhu Danxi was one of the Four Great Masters of the Jin-Yuan period and the founder of TCM’s yin-nourishing school, skilled at using yin-nourishing, fire-draining methods for refractory diseases. “Da Bu Wan” (also called Da Bu Yin Wan) in the Danxi Xinfa is one of his famous formulas, composed of: Cortex Phellodendri (Chuanbo, stir-fried to brown) 4 liang, Rhizoma Anemarrhenae (Zhimu, wine-soaked, fried) 4 liang (120 g), Radix Rehmanniae preparata (Shudihuang) 6 liang (180 g), and Carapax et Plastrum Testudinis (Guiban, toasted with ghee) 6 liang (180 g). Grind the herbs into powder, blend with pig spinal cord and refined honey into pills the size of a phoenix-tree seed. Take 70 pills on an empty stomach with salt water, once or twice daily.
Da Bu Yin Wan is a famous historical formula with many clinical uses; even today it remains one of the most common Chinese patent medicines, made by many manufacturers and generally available in Chinese pharmacies.
Da Bu Yin Wan treats liver-kidney yin deficiency with steaming-bone tidal fever, night sweats, seminal emission, heat and pain in the knees and feet, a red tongue with little coating, and a rapid, forceful chi (cun) pulse. Today it is commonly used for hyperthyroidism, pulmonary tuberculosis, bone tuberculosis, neurasthenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, urinary tract infection, and senile insomnia belonging to yin deficiency with effulgent fire. The formula also suppresses sex-hormone secretion and treats precocious puberty and women’s menopausal syndrome.
According to traditional TCM theory, prepared Rehmannia and tortoise shell supplement the kidney and nourish yin; TCM holds that yin deficiency leads to fire effulgence, so nourishing yin drains fire. Phellodendron and Anemarrhena are cold herbs—Phellodendron bitter-cold, Anemarrhena sweet-cold—both drain fire and clear heat; pig spinal cord and honey enrich essence and fill the marrow, preserving yin and generating fluids. Used together, these six herbs nourish yin, drain heat, and generate fluids, giving good effect on upward-flaring deficiency fire from liver-kidney yin deficiency.
Modern pharmacology shows Da Bu Yin Wan improves metabolism, regulates abnormal energy use, reduces overactive development of the sex organs, modulates blood sugar and immune function, has anti-inflammatory, anti-swelling and antipyretic effects, and treats autoimmune disease.
Da Bu Yin Wan is a common adjunct in oncology. It is used in leukemia, neuroblastoma, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lymphoma, and bone metastases showing the yin-deficiency/effulgent-fire pattern, and for chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia. It helps improve clinical symptoms and quality of life. But its anticancer strength is weak; it cannot treat cancer alone.