Succinum has long been used in TCM and homeopathic remedy

What is succinum or amber(Hu Po)?
As mentioned above, this is kind of fossil resin – the resin was buried in the ground tens of millions of year ago and formed by a certain chemical changes. It has various shapes, often externally with lines left when resin flowed and internally with visible bubble and ancient insect or plant debris. Its English name amber comes from the Latin name of Ambrum, which means "essence." But some claimed that it came from Arabic "Anbar", which means "gum" because the Spaniards called both the buried Arabic gum and amber as amber. And in the eye of ancient Chinese mind amber means tiger soul.

Main chemical constituents are resin, volatile oil, diabietinolic acid, succinosilvic acid, succinoresinol, succinoabietol, succinic acid, borneol, succoxyabietic acid, succinoabietinolic acid, and elements like sodium, strontium, silicon, iron, tungsten, magnesium, aluminum, cobalt, and gallium.

Succinum health benefits
But you may not know that it can also be used as a Chinese herb. It was first seen in Ming Yi Bie Lu (Miscellaneous Records of Famous Physicians), by Tao Hong-Jing in 500 A.D., in which the writer amazed at the nature’s grand creations of millennium pines, let alone the amber changed from resin of prehistoric pine trees in tens of millions of years ago. And according to "Compendium of Materia Medica", it was commented with medicinal properties of tranquilizing viscera, securing soul, eliminating extravasated blood, healing poison produced by venomous insects, and so on. This record has stated that succinum has medical effects and this herb, including amber succinum extract, long been used in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and homeopathic remedy. And now let’s take a look at what it is capable of from the perspective of its pharmacology.

Modern pharmacological actions of amber
1. Succinic acid has central nervous system depressant effects. It can significantly reduce locomotor activity and prolong pentobarbital-induced sleeping time in mince;
2. Succinic acid has antagonism to audiogenic seizures in rats and electroshock seizure and strychnine-induced convulsions in mice.