Holistic Health Articles and Research Related to Herbal Medicines, Foods and Phytochemicals : Chinese Herbs

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Chinese Herbs – Chan Su (Secreto Bufonis)

Chan Su is also known as toad venom. The acrid, warm, toxic herb has been used in TCM to food poisoning with stomach pain and bloating, vomiting, diarrhea, fainting, painful and swollen throat and certain types of cancer, including liver cancer, intestine cancer, leukemia, skin cancer etc. as it expels toxins, resolves oedema, calms pain, opens the orifices, etc. by enhancing the functions of heart, kidney and stomach channels.

Ingredients

1. Steroids

2. Alkaloids bufotenine

3. Bufotenidine

4. Dehydrobufotenin

5. Bufothionine

6. Serotonin

7. Sterole

8. Epinephrine

9. Animo acid

10. Etc.

Health Benefits 1. Anti cancers
Toad venom, namely, “Chansu” in China, has been widely used for the treatment of heart failure, sores, pains, and various cancers. In the investigation of MeOH extract of the toad venom from B. melanosticus was fractionated by preparative HPLC, and the structures of five new buadienolide sulfates (1-5) along with one new bufogenin (6) and testing its cytotoxicity in human cancers cell lines, found that in vitro growth inhibitory activity of these six compounds along with hellebrin (positive control) has been assayed by means of the MTT colorimetric assay in four human and two mouse cancer cell lines. Compound 3 and hellebrin displayed similar and marked in vitro cytotoxicity, according to “Rapid structural identification of cytotoxic bufadienolide sulfates in toad venom from Bufo melanosticus by LC-DAD-MS(n) and LC-SPE-NMR” byGao H, Zehl M, Kaehlig H, Schneider P, Stuppner H, Moreno Y Banuls L, Kiss R, Kopp B.(1)
2. Anti inflammatory effect
Toad Venom, called chansu (CS) in China, is an anti-inflammatory drug used in small doses for the treatment of various types of inflammation in China. In the exploration of whether Bezoar Bovis could protect against CS-induced acute toxicity in mice, found that Bezoar Bovis did not compromise the anti-inflammatory activity of Toad Venom on concanavalin-A (ConA)-stimulated proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These results suggested that Bezoar Bovis elicited protective and anti-arrhythmic effects against Toad Venom intoxication in mice, and is a novel antidote in combination with Toad Venom therapy, according to “The novel antidote Bezoar Bovis prevents the cardiotoxicity of Toad (Bufo bufo gargarizans Canto) Venom in mice” by Ma H, Zhou J, Jiang J, Duan J, Xu H, Tang Y, Lv G, Zhang J, Zhan Z, Ding A.(2)
3. Bladder cancer
In the investigation of Bufalin, a major digoxin-like immunoreactive component of the Chinese medicine Chansu, is prepared from toad venom found that the growth inhibitory effects of bufalin occur through blockade of the G2/M phase, and that these cancer cells do not enter cell cycle progression and die through apoptosis via both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, according to “Bufalin induces apoptosis through activation of both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways in human bladder cancer cells” by Hong SH, Choi YH.(3)
4. Efficacy and safety
In the assessment the efficacy and safe in using long-circulating liposomes in enhancing the therapeutic effect and reducing the toxicity of anticancer drugs found that the bufadienolides liposomes had an LD(50) that was 3.5 times the LD(50) of bufadienolides solution and caused no allergen-related or blood vessel irritation effects. All these results proved that poloxamer modified bufadienolides liposomes have improved antitumor efficacy and safety, according to “Improved antitumor efficacy and reduced toxicity of liposomes containing bufadienolides” by Hu K, Zhu L, Liang H, Hu F, Feng J.(4)
5. Etc.