Anti-Cancer Herbs ⁽¹⁷¹⁾

Xin Qiji has a poem, "Zhegu Tian·On the Path the Soft Mulberry Breaks Buds": "By the path the soft mulberry breaks tender buds; the silkworm eggs of the eastern neighbor have just hatched. On the gentle slope fine grass murmurs with the yellow calf; in…

Lu Fengfang is the nest of the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa spp.) or several related insects of the Vespidae family—what folk calls a "hornet's nest." It is also called Dahuangfengchao (giant wasp nest), Ye Fengfang (wild wasp nest), Changjiao Fengwo (long-legged wasp nest), etc. Lu Fengfang…

Both Xiatianwu and Yanhusuo (also called Yuanhu), plants of the Papaveraceae family, are commonly used analgesics in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and their active pain-relieving constituents are alkaloids. The analgesic effect of Xiatianwu and Yanhusuo reaches roughly half that of morphine, but unlike morphine they…

The Chinese herb Yadanzi is the dried ripe fruit of Brucea javanica of the Simaroubaceae family, mainly produced in China's Guangdong and Guangxi regions. In those two regions there are also many folk single-subject recipes using it to treat cancer. I once treated a cancer…

The Chinese herb Baitouweng is the root of Pulsatilla chinensis, Pulsatilla turczaninovii, Pulsatilla bungeana, Pulsatilla dahurica, Pulsatilla koreana, and Pulsatilla campanella of the Ranunculaceae family. Modern textbooks of Chinese materia medica classify it as a heat-clearing, detoxifying herb, holding that Baitouweng clears heat and detoxifies,…

Renshen, Xiyangshen, Dangshen, and Taizishen are four qi-tonifying herbs commonly used in clinic and four healthy-qi-supporting herbs commonly used in oncology. Many tumor patients themselves buy one of these four ginsengs or their extracts as a health supplement. I am often asked by patients which…

Huang Qi, also written Huang Qi, is the rhizome of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus or Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. of the Fabaceae family. It is the most commonly used qi- and blood-tonifying herb in TCM. As early as the era when the Shennong…

Shishangbai, a commonly used herb in TCM oncology, is the whole herb of Selaginella doederleinii of the Selaginellaceae family. Juanbai has a long medicinal history; it was used as medicine as early as the Qin-Han period, and the Shennong Bencaojing lists juanbai as an upper-grade…

Corn silk is the style and stigma of Zea mays L. of the Gramineae family. It is produced in most regions of the world; anyone who has grown or bought corn is familiar with it. Corn silk can be eaten as well as used medicinally,…

Tiankuizi, also known as zi bei tiankui zi, is called “thousand-year mouse droppings” in eastern Hubei. It is the tuberous root of Semiaquilegia adoxoides (DC.) Makino of the Ranunculaceae family. I have once dug it up in the wild with my father. Both the Zhongyao…