Witnessed by: TCM
White chicken droppings (Gallus gallus domesticus), of the Phasianidae (Aves) family. The domestic fowl, kept in the yard; the dropping voided with a white cap of urate on a dark core; native range: collected wherever fowl are kept — the drug is as near to hand as a drug gets. Globally recognized as ji shi bai (雞屎白) in Chinese, and white chicken droppings in English. The part used is the white part of the dropping only, dried. The dried white urate scraped clean of the dark core — a chalky, brittle, greyish-white crust, light and crumbling to a fine powder; the smell rank and ammoniacal, the taste bitter and salt.
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.
CHICKEN DROPPINGS
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- white chicken droppings
- Scientific name
- Gallus gallus domesticus
- Family
- Phasianidae (Aves)
Form
- Part used
- the white part of the dropping only, dried
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- bitter (苦) · salty (咸)
Temperature
- TCM
- cool (涼)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Bladder
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- promotes urination and disperses swelling, drains heat downward, dispels wind and relieves spasm, and resolves toxicity
Cautions
- Contraindications
- deficiency without excess; pregnancy; and any patient in whom a downward-draining drug is ill-advised
- Toxicity
- recorded as non-toxic in the old texts, but raw poultry droppings carry a real enteric-pathogen hazard. The substance is not used in modern practice, and there is no clean supply of it
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