Witnessed by: TCM
Black-boned chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), of the Phasianidae (Aves) family. A small fowl with silky white or dark plumage, dark skin, dark flesh and slate-black bone and periosteum, five toes and a walnut comb; native range: an old Chinese breed, long-established in Jiangxi (the Taihe fowl) and kept throughout China and east Asia. Globally recognized as wu gu ji (烏骨雞), wu ji (烏雞) in Chinese, black-boned chicken, silkie fowl in English, and Gallus in Latin. The part used is the whole bird — flesh and bone together, the feathers and viscera removed. The flesh dark grey to near black, close-grained and lean; the bone and periosteum slate-black. It cooks to a clear dark broth, the taste sweet and mild, without the fat of the common fowl.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
BLACK-BONED CHICKEN
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- black-boned chicken
- Scientific name
- Gallus gallus domesticus
- Family
- Phasianidae (Aves)
Form
- Part used
- the whole bird — flesh and bone together, the feathers and viscera removed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet (甘)
Temperature
- TCM
- neutral (平)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Liver · Kidney · Spleen
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- tonifies the liver and kidney, augments qi and nourishes the blood, reinforces the essence, and clears deficiency heat
Cautions
- Contraindications
- damp-heat, phlegm-damp, and any unresolved exterior pattern or acute fever — a rich tonic closes the door on what should be expelled; also not during acute diarrhea from excess
- Toxicity
- a food substance, non-toxic in ordinary use
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