This crude drug is the resin of Styrax chinensis Pierre (family: Styracaceae).

This species is a perennial tree with a grayish brown bark showing irregular longitudinal cracks. The branches are somewhat flat, covered with brown villi at the early stage of development and becoming hairless later. The leaves are alternate; the petiole is long, densely clothed with brown asteroidal hairs; the blade is elliptical, elliptically ovate to ovate, 5-18cm long, 4-10cm wide, short-tapered at the apex, rounded or wedge-shaped at the base, hairless on the upper side (or that of a young leaf being covered with asteroidal hairs on the veins), densely covered with gray to powder green asteroidal hairs on the lower side, entire marginally (or 2-3-toothed when young). The panicle is relatively large, occurring on top of branch, both the peduncle and the pedicel bearing dense yellowish brown asteroidal pubescences; the calyx is cup-shaped and 5-toothed, and the corolla is white and 5-lobed, both of them being densely covered with white asteroidal hairs; each flower has 10 stamens whose filaments are united in the form of a tube. The fruit is subsphaeroidal, densely covered with asteroidal fuzzes. The seed is egg-shaped, chestnut brown, exhibiting dense tiny humps and asteroidal hairs.

This species is distributed in Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan in China.

The resin is collected by cutting the bark of the plant in a fine day in the summer or autumn. The collected resin is left in the shade, and wrapped with paper and stored in a wooden box after it has been naturally dry and become white.

1. Cytotoxicity: lignan compounds in benzoin stem bark has a strong cytotoxicity to rat glioma cells C6, human laryngeal carcinoma cells Hep-2 and cancer cells Hela of cervical cancer [1]; its seed lignan compounds has toxic to breast cancer cells (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231) [2]; benzoin triterpenoids have a certain degree of growth inhibition to human leukemia cells HL-60 cells, and some compounds can also induce cell differentiation [3].

2. Antioxidant activity: the lignans of styraxlignolide C, styraxlignolide D, styraxlignolide E and (-)-pinoresinol glucoside which separated from Benzoin, all of them in a weak antioxidant activity, and their IC50 are 380, 278, 194, 60μm [4], respectively.

3. Antibacterial and antifungal: the crude extracts of Benzoin leaves have inhibitory activity to the Beauveria Cladosporium, the people Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus with IC50 are 200, 800, 750μm [5].

4. Anti-complement: the styraxlignolide A, styraxoside B, egonol, sutakeside I compounds of benzoin rhizome extracts have anti-complement activity and the IC50 respectively are 123, 65, 33, 166μm [6].

5. The antiulcer: the aqueous extracts of benzoin can reduce the stomach ulcers and ulcer area in mice caused by acetic acid, and reduce the volume of gastric secretions as well as increase the number of collagen fibers [7].

6. Inhibition on matrix metalloproteinase-1 role: benzoin stem bark methanol extract by the ethyl acetate extract has strong inhibitation on matrix metalloproteinase1[8].

1.       Sudden cardiodynia, or a year-round cardiodynia

2.       cholera of yin syndrome due to cold and dampness

3.       incessant cold abdominal pain

4.       Epilepsy susceptible to dark places of men and women

5.       Postpartum anemic fainting, blood distention, trismus for dying

6.       Sudden wind stoke of adults and children, aversion to qi

7.       Pediatric abdominal pain, crying with feet bent

化学成分

[1] State Administration of traditional Chinese materia medica editorial board. " " Chinese materia medica. Shanghai: Shanghai science and Technology Press, 1999,6:114 ( total 5440).

药理作用

[1]Hlder L.Teles,Jefferson P. Hemerly,Patricia M. Pauletti.Cytotoxic lignansfrom the stems of Styrax camporun.Natural Product Research,2005,19 (4):319.

[2]Qi-linLi,Bo-gang Li,Hua-yi Qi.Four new benzofuran from seeds of Styrax perkinsiae.Planta Medica,2005,71 (9):847.

[3] Wang Feng benzoin and frankincense chemical constituents and anti tumor activity of doctoral dissertation of Shenyang University, 2007

[4]ElfriedeBacchi,Jayme Antonio Aboin Sertie,Nelson Villa.Antiulcer action and toxicity of Styrax camporum and Caesalpinia ferrea.Planta Medica,1998,61:204.

[5]Byung-sun Min,Sei-ryang Oh.Anti-complement activity of norlignans terpenes from the stem bark of Styrax japonica.Planta Medica,2004,70(12):1210.

[6]P. Mendonca Pauletti,A. R. Araujo,M. C. M. Young.Nor-lignans from the leaves of Styrax ferrugineus with antibacterial and antifungal activity.Phytochemistry,2000,55(6):597.

[7]Byung-sun Min,Min-kyun Na,Sei-ryang Oh.New furofuran and butyrolactone lignans with antioxidant activity from the stem bark of Styrax japonica.J. Nat. Prod,2004,67:1980.

[8]Mi-Ran Kim,Hyung-In Moon,Jin Ho Chung.Matrix Metalloproteinase-1 Inhibitor from the Stem Bark of Styrax japonica S. et Z. Chem Pharm Bull,2004,52(12):1466.

临床试验

[1] Shao Yun. Combined with traditional Chinese medicine compound tincture of benzoin vapor absorption in the treatment of chronic laryngitis in 86 patients. Clinical Journal of Anhui traditional Chinese medicine, 2001,13 ( 2): 98