Is a popular Chinese herbal medicine for brain bleeds useless? Here’s what one study says

The Lancet has published a study of a widely used traditional Chinese medicine – Zhongfeng Xingnao – which was developed in the 1980s

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Published: 3:11pm, 19 Nov 2024Updated: 3:49pm, 19 Nov 2024

One of the world’s most influential medical journals, the 200-year-old Lancet, has published its first paper on herbal medicine, unveiling a study on a compound that is widely used in China for treating brain bleeds.

And the results were disappointing.

In the large, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herbal compound FYTF-919 – sold under the brand name Zhongfeng Xingnao – “showed no effect” in treating patients with moderate to severe intracerebral haemorrhage, a subtype of stroke closely linked with illness and death.

Zhongfeng Xingnao is an oral liquid sold in 100ml (3.5 fluid ounce) bottles that is formulated from several Chinese herbs. It was developed in the late 1980s by Chen Shaohong, chief physician of the TCM Hospital of Sichuan Province, and is popular across China.

The study has drawn an enormous amount of attention in China’s medical research community because it was the first time the journal had published original research on herbal medicine.

Zhongfeng Xingnao is sold in liquid form to treat brain bleeds, but it has never been put through a rigorous clinical trial, until now. Photo: Xinhua

The study was led by Guo Jianwen, a medical practitioner from the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, and Song Lili and her colleague Craig Anderson from the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence at Fudan University in Shanghai. It was carried out by a large group of researchers and published on November 12.