Functions:
Dispel heat
Sooth throat
Remove toxins
Disperse swelling
Control pain

Indication:
Painful swollen throat, mouth, and gums, lung heat cough; fidgets and thirst; damp-heat jaundice, accumulated heat, constipation; carcinoma.

Properties: Bitter in flavour, cold in nature, it acts on the lung and stomach channels. The bitter and the cold properties can clear heat and purge fire. It is good at removing the excessive fire and noxious heat invading the lung and stomach channels so as to relieve sore throat. So, it is indicated for sore throat, ulceration in the mouth, toothache and canker sores in the mouth, toothache and canker sores in the mouth caused by the upward attack of the lung and stomach noxious heat.

Effects: Clearing away heat, detoxicating, relieving sore throat.

Indications:

1. For sore throat, ulceration in the mouth or fever caused by the upward attack of excessive and noxious heat, it is used in combination with the heat-clearing and detoxicating drugs, such as isatis root and scrophularia root.

2.For the toothache, canker sores in the mouth caused by excessive lung-fire, it is used in combination with the medicines for removing heat and purging fire from the stomach, such as gypsum.

Dosage and Administration: 3-6g.

The root is analgesic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antispasmodic, diuretic and hypotensive. A decoction of the dried roots is used in the treatment of a variety of ailments including cancer of the respiratory tract and urinary bladder, boils, constipation, coughs and sore throats. The plant contains a number of compounds that demonstrate anticancer activity.

http://www.natap.org/2005/HCV/010305_01.htm

Referenced footnotes are online at the above address.

Matrine and oxymatrine are the two major alkaloid components found in sophora roots. They are obtained primarily from Sophora japonica (kushen), but also from Sophora subprostrata (shandougen), and from the above ground portion of Sophora alopecuroides. The matrines were first isolated and identified in 1958; they are unique tetracyclo-quinolizindine alkaloids (see Figure 1) found only in Sophora species thus far. An intensive investigation into the pharmacology and clinical applications of these alkaloids has gone on for the past decade and remains one of the focal points of Chinese medical research. The main clinical applications are treatment of people with cancer, viral hepatitis, cardiac diseases (such as viral myocarditis), and skin diseases (such as psoriasis and eczema).

The crude herb and crude hot-water extracts of sophora have been available in the West for more than 25 years. An alkaloid fraction of sophora roots containing a standardized level of oxymatrine and matrine (20%) was first introduced by the Institute for Traditional Medicine, and made available to practitioners in tablet form under the name Oxymatrine (White Tiger) in 1998. It has been used without reported side effects. In China, the alkaloids are often given by injection, but this method of administration is not acceptable in the West, so oral dosing is used here instead. When taken orally, much of the oxymatrine is converted to matrine; to get high blood levels of oxymatrine, it must be given by injection. However, it is unclear whether oxymatrine is clinically more effective than matrine. Chinese researchers have also used the alkaloids in capsule form, with results that appear similar to the injection. Sophora is also administered in complex formulas made as decoctions and taken orally.

In recent years, oxymatrine has been recommended for treating chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C and has been shown effective in clinical practice. It has been utilized for these applications broadly, but the factors affecting its efficacy have not yet been determined.

Chen and his group gave oxymatrine injection to patients with hepatitis B. He confirmed that the viral load declined by this treatment, suggesting that oxymatrine served to inhibit the viral replication, not just reduce liver damage, which is the primary and more limited effect of many herbs used for hepatitis. Antiviral activity, for hepatitis C virus, was confirmed by the same group in cell culture tests (2). Clinical effectiveness for patients with hepatitis C had been reported earlier, including reduction of viral load (3). Oxymatrine may reduce death of liver cells damaged by means other than by inhibiting viral activity, as indicated in a pharmacology study of liver protective effects in immune-based liver damage (4).

Kang Junjie and Kang Suqiong, at the Treatment Center for Hepatic Diseases of the Amoy Municipal Hospital, reported that oxymatrine injection did not cause side effects other than rare local reactions at the injection site (5). They used this injection along with oral administration of complex Chinese herb formulas designed to match symptom-sign complexes and claimed that the effects were comparable to those attained with interferon therapy, except that adverse reactions were avoided. In particular, they claimed that the use of oxymatrine and Chinese herb formulas inhibited liver fibrosis (for further information on Chinese herbs for this purpose, see: Treatment and prevention of liver fibrosis). The inhibition of fibrosis appears to be a separate for additional function of sophora alkaloids beyond inhibiting viral activity. In laboratory animal studies carried out by Chen Weizhong and his colleagues at the Changzheng Hospital in Shanghai, matrine was shown to reduce the formation of liver fibrosis that was caused by chemical damage to the liver (6).

Thus, in relation to viral hepatitis, the sophora alkaloids appear to inhibit the viral replication, reduce destruction of liver cells, and protect against fibrosis. It has also been suggested that the alkaloids promote the flow of bile.

Sophora subprostrata has long been regarded an anticancer herb in China. According to cancer specialist Chang Minyi (7), ''Sophora subprostrata works through stimulating the anticancer immune mechanism of the patient and reinforcing his resistance against the growth of the tumor.'' In 1998, Xu Xiangru and Jiang Jikai, working at the Congqing University of Medical Sciences, published a review of anticancer activity of sophora alkaloids (8). They relayed pharmacology studies indicating the alkaloids could inhibit growth of tumor cells directly, and could also affect immune functions. In clinical work, they described the use of sophora alkaloids for treating the side effect of leukopenia caused by cancer chemotherapy or radiation therapy and for treating certain cancers, notably uterine cervical cancer and leukemia. The herb is also considered an important ingredient in treatment of esophageal and laryngeal cancer. In a recent pharmacology study, it was reported that matrine could help leukemia cells differentiate into mature and normal white blood cells (9). Nonetheless, sophora alkaloids should not be relied upon as a sole treatment for cancer, but as an adjunct therapy, as there is no proof that the herb or these compounds are curative.