Anti-Cancer Herbs ⁽¹⁷¹⁾

Zhizi (Gardenia) is the fruit of the Rubiaceae plant Gardenia jasminoides. Gardenia flowers have a faint, delicate fragrance that refreshes the heart; the plant is a common ornamental landscape shrub. The fruit of Gardenia is a commonly used Chinese medicinal. It has very low toxicity,…

If I had to rank Chinese herbal medicines by their fatality rate among cancer patients, I would put sanqi (Panax notoginseng) first. The harm it causes is far more serious than that of the aristolochiaceous plants recently publicized online. This is probably because sanqi is…

Da-Ji and Xiao-Ji (Thistles): Common TCM Herbs for Hemostasis, Detumescence and Reducing Ascites in Cancer Patients Da-ji (Cirsium japonicum, Japanese thistle) and xiao-ji (Cirsium setosum, field thistle) are two of the most commonly used TCM herbs for cooling blood, detumescence, hemostasis and pain relief. In…

I first came to know phoenix-tail fern when, on a herb-gathering trip with my father, I spotted a clump of it growing by a roadside gully. My father told me this herb was called phoenix-tail fern, and he mentioned a liver-cancer patient in our village…

Bleeding is one of the most common symptoms in cancer patients: hemoptysis in lung cancer, hematemesis in gastric cancer, bloody stools in bowel cancer, and vaginal bleeding in cervical and ovarian cancer, among others, are all frequently seen clinically. Generally, bleeding of various kinds in…

The Chinese medicinal herbs daji (Cirsium japonica, Japanese thistle) and xiaoji (Cirsium setosum, field thistle) can be used in some cancer patients and have a good effect in relieving edema caused by ascites.

Our renowned TCM educator, the well-known veteran physician Professor Zhang Tingmo, wrote in his book Clinical Chinese Materia Medica: "Chinese herbs have a certain toxicity, an objective fact confirmed by thousands of years of medication practice. According to incomplete statistics, in the last 90 years…

Chemotherapy and targeted therapy are common cancer treatments. For some patients they are reliably effective, greatly prolonging survival and even achieving clinical cure. But a considerable proportion of patients develop various complications during chemotherapy and targeted therapy; nausea and vomiting are the most frequent complications…

Baiji (Bletilla striata) is the Chinese medicinal with the strongest hemostatic action. Animal experiments have shown that the hemostatic effect of Baiji is immediate. Applying a decoction of Baiji tuberous root to experimental wounds in dogs and rabbits produces instant hemostasis.

Zhongjiefeng (Sarcandra glabra) is a plant of the genus Sarcandra in the Chloranthaceae family; clinically the whole plant or its root is used as medicine. The name Zhongjiefeng (literally "knot-breaking wind") already indicates that its main use is in treating diseases of swollen, painful joints.