Xiao Yao San and Hepatitis B

Xiao Yao San and Hepatitis B

Xiao-Yao-San is a famous Chinese herbal formula originally recorded in "Tai Ping Hui Min He Ji Ju Fang" (a classical Chinese medicine book of the Song Dynasty). It is a mixture of eight crude herbs (Bupleurum falcatum, Angelica sinensis, Paeonia lactiflora, Atractylodes lancea, Wolfiporia cocos, Zingiber officinale, Mentha arvensis, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis. This herbal prescription is reported to possess hepatoprotective, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, anti-cancer, and immunomodulation activities, and is commonly used in the clinic to treat functional dyspepsia, postmenopausal women with climacteric symptoms, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, mood stabilizer swings, insomnia, depressive disorders, breast cancer, and so on. Recently, some studies have shown that Xiao-Yao-San has a potent effect on treating CHB. Xiao-Yao-San could improve the clinical symptoms (e.g., weak, inappetence, and hepatalgia) of patients with CHB. Furthermore, the patients' liver function (ALT and AST) and liver fibrosis indexes, including hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), procollagen III peptide (P-III-P), and collagen type IV (IV-C), were improved significantly after treatment with Xiao-Yao-San. Furthermore, Xiao-Yao-San combined with adefovir dipivoxil could significantly improve the negative conversion rates of HBeAg and HBV-DNA in the treatment of CHB. Although Xiao-Yao-San has its unique advantages in treating CHB, a far larger body of literature only exists in Chinese language journals. It is reasonable to publish some well-designed, efficacy-based basic or clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of Xiao-Yao-San in treating CHB in the future in English language journals.

Excerpt from Qi FH, Wang ZX, Cai PP, Zhao L, Gao JJ, Kokudo N, Li AY, Han JQ, Tang W. Traditional Chinese medicine and related active compounds: A review of their role on hepatitis B virus infection. Drug Discov Ther. 2013 Dec;7(6):212-224.

To read the full text, click here.