Chinese herbal medicine uses a very large number of remedies, mostly plant material but also including minerals and some animal products. All of these are conventionally, if somewhat illogically, termed “herbs” in Chinese medicine. Some of the animal medicines are problematic for animal welfare, environmental, biodiversity or socio-economic reasons.
One such is EJiao – Donkey gelatin – derived from donkey hides. It is an important nutritive remedy used to “tonify the blood”. But the demand for donkey hides for EJiao production in China is so great that donkeys are being exported en masse from Africa, where they are traditionally used as working animals. As a result, apart from concerns about their welfare, they are becoming economically inaccessible to local people (The Conversation, 6th February 2023).
I do not use EJiao or any other problematic animal products in my practice of Chinese herbal medicine. Cow or pig gelatin can be used instead, and indeed cowhide gelatin was usually used until the 11th century, when donkeys became more widely available. Moreover, there are plant medicines which may be utilised for the same purpose, perhaps slightly less effectively but much more ethically. And happily, Chinese researchers are developing synthetic gelatin alternatives which have shown therapeutic promise.
Robert Hale Herbalist 