Ejiao
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Blood Tonics
Ejiao
Latin:
Colla Corii Asini
Origin:
The dry glue pieces made from the hide of Equns asinus L., the donkey, of the family Equidae. Ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) is made by boiling a donkey hide and refining the results. Traditionally, it is obtained after a series of processes of the hide: washing, soaking, pluching, rinsing and stewing.
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Gelatin is the animal protein substance having gel-forming properties, used primarily in food products and home cookery, also having various industrial uses. Derived from collagen, a protein found in animal skin and bone, it is extracted by boiling animal hides, skins, bones, and tissue after alkali or acid pretreatment.
An easily digested, pure protein food, it is nutritionally an incomplete protein, deficient in certain amino acids. Unflavored, granulated gelatin, almost tasteless and odorless, ranges from faint yellow to amber in colour. Gelatin is also available as a finely ground mix with added sugar, flavoring, acids, and colouring. When stored in dry form, at room temperature, and in an airtight container, it remains stable for long periods.
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Immersed in a liquid, gelatin takes up moisture and swells. When the liquid is warmed, the swollen particles melt, forming a sol (fluid colloidal system) with the liquid that increases in viscosity and solidifies to form a gel as it cools. The gel state is reversible to a sol state at higher temperatures, and the sol can be changed back to a gel by cooling.
Both setting time and tenderness are affected by protein and sugar concentration and by temperature. Gelatin may be whipped to form a foam and acts as an emulsifier and stabilizer.
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Gelatin is used to make such gel foods as jellied meats, soups, and candies, aspics, and molded desserts and to stabilize such emulsion and foam food products as ice cream, marshmallows, and mixtures of oils or fats with water. Fruit jellies resemble gelatin products but achieve solidification as a result of a natural vegetable substance called pectin.
The food industry makes use of most of the gelatin produced. Gelatin is also used by the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of capsules, cosmetics, ointments, lozenges, and plasma products and by other industries.
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Ejiao, or donkey-hide gelatin is used in China as a blood tonic. The tonic is produced mainly in Shandong (very well-known), Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. It is used unprepared after smashing, or stir-baked (after cutting into small lumps and with oyster shell powder) into small glue balls.
More advanced technology is now being employed by companies in China, particularly those in Shandong province, the major producing province, to replace older methods of producing ejiao. The gelatin made there is referred to as Dong'e E-gelatin, after its place of origin, Shandong's Dong'e County.
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Previously, most of this work was done by hand. In the 1980s, the Shandong Dong'e E-gelatin Group, China's largest ejiao producer, started using technology to condense the ejiao, shortening the production cycle from 60 days to 30 days. And, the microwave drying equipment the group used took 6 more days off the production cycle. The group also began using computer controls to increase the ratio of quality products from 55 percent to 86 percent.
Ejiao is now exported to dozens countries, including the U.S., Japan and Italy.
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Also called Donkey-hide Gelatin or E-gelatin.
Properties:
Sweet in flavor, mild in nature, it is related to the lung, liver and kidney channels.
Functions:
Replenishes blood, stops bleeding, nourishes yin and moistens the lung.
Owing to its sweet, mild and moist properties, this drug can replenish liver-blood, nourish kidney-yin, stop bleeding and moisten the lung.
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It can be used to treat syndromes of blood deficiency, hyperactivity of fire due to yin-deficiency, various types of hemorrhage and yin-impairment due to lung-dryness.
Applications:
1. For syndrome of blood-deficiency, it is often used with blood tonics, such as Radix Rehmanniae Praeparata, Radix Paeoniae Alba, Radix Codonopsis Pilosuae, etc.
2. For hematoma (blood clot), hemoptysis (vomits blood), hemafecia, metrorrhagia (uterine bleeding), metrostaxis, etc., in the type of deficiency-cold, it is used with herbs for replenishing qi, warming yang, invigorating channels and stopping bleeding, such as Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae, Rhizoma Zingiberis, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, baked Rhizoma Zingiberis, Recens, Ootheca Mantidis, etc.
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3. For bleeding due to blood-heat, it is used with herbs for removing heat from blood and stopping bleeding, such as Radix Rehmamniae, Pollen Typhae, Radix Scutellariae, Cacumen Biotae, Herba seu Radix Cirsil Japonici, Herba Cephalanoploris, Fructus Gardeniae Carbonisatus, etc.
4. For yin-impairment due to lung-dryness, dry cough with less sputum, cough with bloody sputum, it is used with herbs for moistening the lung to arrest cough, such as Radix Glehnlae, Radix Ophiopogonis, Folium Mori Bulbus, Fritillariae Cirrhosae, Semen Armeniacae Amarum, etc..
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5. For yin-impairment from febrile diseases, flaring up of the asthenic fire, irritability, and insomnia, it is often used with herbs for nourishing yin and dispelling fire, such as Rhizoma Coptidis, Radix Paeoniae Alba, etc., as in Decoction of Coptis and Donkey-Hide Glue (Huanglian Ejiao Tang).
Dosage and Administration:
5-15 g.
Melted by heating for oral administration with water.
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Cautions on Use:
It is sticky and greasy in property and can hinder digestion, so it is improper to prescribe to patients with dyspepsia or indigestion due to hypofunction of the spleen.
Reference Materials:
Toxic or Side Effects:
Modern Researches:
This drug has effects of promoting erythropoiesis (process of production of erythrocytes--red blood cells--in the marrow in adult mammals) and the production of hemoglobin (which is superior to ferralium in effect), improving the balance of calcium in animals, increasing absorption and detention of calcium in the organism; preventing and improving progressive myodystrophia (muscular contraction).
Anima1 experiments show that injection of refinned Colla Corii Asini fluid can raise blood pressure and resist shock., 百拇医药