China Analyzes Donkey-hide Tonic to Tap Overseas Market

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 22, 2002

China Analyzes Donkey-hide Tonic to Tap Overseas Market

China plans to use modern technologyto analyze components of donkey-hide gelatin, a traditional Chinese tonic known as ejiao, to tap foreign markets.

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China plans to use modern technologyto analyze components of donkey-hide gelatin, a traditional Chinese tonic, to tap foreign markets.

Donkey-hide gelatin, known as ejiao in Chinese, is made by boiling donkey hide and refining the results for use as a blood tonic. But without clear explanation of its medical function, the product is only accepted by Chinese people, including overseas Chinese.

To provide donkey-hide gelatin products acceptable to foreign customers, Shandong Dong'e Ejiao Group, China's largest donkey-hide gelatin producer, has launched a research project to use genetic, molecular biological and modern clinical knowledge to analyze the tonic and explain its functioning mechanism.

More than 30 experts from 10 institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qinghua University, have joined the research team and made some progress.

According to the company, scientists can now explain the mechanism of the gelatin's stimulating function on leukocytes, or white blood cells, which provides a scientific foundation for developing new donkey-hide gelatin products.

The research project, scheduled for completion before the end of 2005, has attracted the interest of overseas scientists. A company spokesman said they had received many offers to set up joint research centers overseas.

The Shandong Dong'e Ejiao Group produces 70 percent of China's donkey-hide gelatin products. In 2001, it had sales income of 520 million yuan (63 million US dollars).

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