Chi Shao Injection could increase the blood volume in coronary vessles, cardiac output, resistance of heart beat in anaesthetized gods. It could also lower the resistance of coroarny vessels and total peripheral resistance, reduce cardiac work and lower myocardial oxygen consumption.

chi shao could lower whole blood viscosity, inhibit platelet aggregation, lower platelet adhesiveness and fibrinogen and inhibit the thrombosis time, etc..

shao yao and paeoniflorin had certain sedative effect on the nervous center and could prolong the sleeping time of barbital sodium. Paeoniflorin had analgesic effect.

Chi Shao Injection and a-catechin could relieve the spasm of isolated ileum induced by acetylcholine in Guinea pigs. Paeoniflorin could significantly inhibit the movements of intestinal canals of guinea pigs and rats as well as in vivo stomach.

Intraperitoneal injection of normal butyl alcohol extract of chi shao at the dosage of 1~1.5g/kg had obvious inhibitory effect on S180 solid tumor. Combination of water extract of chi shao and cyclophosphane or amethopterin had obvious effect on the growth of S180 solid tumor and survival time of L615 mice. There're also reports showing that water extracts could promote the formation of ascites in Ehrlich carcinoma. S180 and W256 ascites carcinoma and significantly shorten the survival time.

Paeoniae Radix, a Chinese herbal extract, inhibit hepatoma cells growth by inducing apoptosis in a p53 independent pathway.

Paeoniae Radix (PR) is the root of traditional Chinese Herb named Paeonia lactiflora Pallas, which is commonly used to treat liver diseases in China for centuries. Several earlier studies have indicated that PR has anticancer growth activities, however the mechanism underlying these activities was unclear and remained to be elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the molecular mechanism of the effect of PR on human hepatoma cell lines, HepG2 and Hep3B. Our results showed that the water-extract of Paeoniae Radix (PRE) had inhibitory effect on the growth of both HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines. The induction of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation appearance, and accumulation of sub-G1 phase of cell cycle profile in PRE treated hepatoma cells evidenced that the cytotoxicity of PRE to the hepatoma cells is through activation of the cell death program, apoptosis. The activation of apoptosis by PRE is independent of the p53 pathway as Hep3B cell is p53-deficient. In addition, the differential gene expression of PRE treated HepG2 was examined by cDNA microarray technology and RT-PCR analysis. We found that the gene expression of BNIP3 was up-regulated while ZK1, RAD23B, and HSPD1 were down-regulated during early apoptosis of the hepatoma cell mediated by PRE. The elucidation of the drug targets of PR on inhibition of tumor cells growth should enable further development of PR for liver cancer therapy.

--Lee SM, Li ML, Tse YC, Leung SC, Lee MM, Tsui SK, Fung KP, Lee CY, Waye MM. Life Sci. 2002 Sep 27;71(19):2267-77.

chi shao had antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-febrile effects. Chi Shao Injection could protect the liver cell in rats with experimental liver injury induced by D-galactose. It's also a tonic and could promote memory.

chi shao 40~120g; ge gen, dan pi, 15~30g each; sheng di, yi mu cao, ze lan 15g each. 1 dose every day. The method was used to treat severe hepatitis with jaundice, and 20 cured, 3 markedly effective and 1 ineffective.

Huan Ji Tang (experimental formula): bai shao, chi shao, sheng gan cao, yu jin, shui chang pu, chao zhi ke, gan song, sheng qu, mu xiang, yuan hu. Modify the formual according to accompanied symptoms. 7 doses as a course of treatment. 1~2 courses for the patients. 20 cases were treated and all were effective.

Chi Hong Granule: chi shao, hong hua, san qi, chuan xiong, tao ren, etc..85 ears in 82 cases were treated and 43.9% were effective.

Except those noted, all references come from Weng Weiliang, et al., Clinical Chinese materia medica, Henan Science & Technology Press, 1998