Witnessed by: TCM
Donkey-hide gelatin (Equus asinus), of the Equidae (Mammalia) family. The donkey, kept as a working animal; the drug is the gelatin boiled from its hide; native range: made classically at Dong'e in Shandong, whose well water was held to make the difference; produced across northern China and beyond. Globally recognized as e jiao (阿膠) in Chinese, and donkey-hide gelatin, ass-hide glue in English. The part used is the gelatin, boiled from the hide and set into cakes. Hard, brittle, glassy blocks of deep brown to near-black, translucent at the edge and smooth to the tongue, with a faint sweetish animal odour; snaps cleanly and dissolves to a heavy syrup in hot liquid.
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.
DONKEY-HIDE GELATIN
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- donkey-hide gelatin
- Scientific name
- Equus asinus Linnaeus, 1758
- Family
- Equidae (Mammalia)
Form
- Part used
- the gelatin, boiled from the hide and set into cakes
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
- Lung · Liver · Kidney
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- tonifies the blood and stops bleeding, nourishes the yin and moistens dryness, calms the fetus, and — in the last stage of a warm disease, when the yin is spent — extinguishes the wind that stirs from emptiness
Cautions
- Contraindications
- weak Spleen and Stomach with poor appetite, nausea or loose stool, and any condition with damp or undigested food — the gelatin is cloying and hard to move
- Toxicity
- low intrinsic toxicity; the burden is digestive, not pharmacological
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