Western versions of Chinese herbs and animal products

[Guest guest]

In the past, people have debated on the merits and risks of using

botanically identical plants growing in the West as substitutes for

Chinese herbs. We have also discussed the problems with animal

products from China, which generally hinge on lack of control of

environmental issues. It has been discussed that the influence of our

climate and soil conditions may cause Chinese herbs to vary too much

in nature and constituents when cultivated or wild-crafted in the US.

Do people think that this concern would be of lesser importance if we

were discussing animal products?

 

For example, let's say we started raising our own pangolins for meat

and the medicinal chuan shan jia (their scales). Wild populations

would not be damaged, contaminants could be neutralized, humane

treatment could be theoretically assured, perhaps even importation

into Europe would again be possible (they cannot use such products at

present in many nations). We could attempt to match climate conditions

as well as possible, and we may be able to produce an equal or even

superior product.

 

While China has had poor results raising Thai crocodiles, many nations

have been successful in raising cows where they did not previously

occur. The taste of meat varies from place to place, but cow

basically tastes like cow the world over, and its flavor varies more

by the cleanliness of its environment that the specifics of the

continent (based on my limited experience anyway).

 

In my mind, using animal products raised in the West would have some

merit. I am a bit hesitant to adopt the use of species-matched

Chinese herbs that are wild-crafted here, not that I doubt their

benefits so much as that I doubt our ability to understand their

benefits without a history of using them. But I also wonder whether

there may be a few Chinese herbs that could be successfully

transplanted here from original Chinese source plants. The logical

extension would be to use selective breeding techniques to enhance

certain qualities and create modified strains that were more potent in

certain ways. The Chinese have long-known about selective breeding

techniques. Does anyone know whether some of the herbs that we

commonly use have been bred for potency or enhanced production?

 

The raising of Chinese plants here would be of little value in terms

of large-scale economics. But it could make for some good Ph.D

studies and mad scientist experiments.

 

Eric