How Is Natural Cow Bezoar Formed? Price per Gram, Benefits, Effects and Contraindications

There is a very precious thing in cattle, and that is cow bezoar. Along with dog bezoar and horse bezoar, it is known as one of the three treasures of traditional Chinese medicine, and it is a very rare and valuable Chinese medicinal material. However, there is not much natural cow bezoar in our country, and the price of natural cow bezoar is also very high. So how is natural cow bezoar formed? What is the price per gram?

I. How Is Natural Cow Bezoar Formed?

Cow bezoar, also known by the alias Choubao, is a gallstone from the gallbladder of cattle or water buffaloes of the Bovidae family. When slaughtering cattle, if cow bezoar is found, the bile is filtered off, the cow bezoar is removed, the outer membrane is removed, and it is dried in the shade. Natural cow bezoar is extremely precious; only about 3 to 4 kilograms of cow bezoar can be obtained from roughly 1 million cattle. Complete cow bezoar is mostly oval, or irregularly spherical or triangular pyramidal in shape, with a few being tubular or granular. Cow bezoar is light in weight, with a surface ranging from golden yellow to yellowish brown, fine and glossy. The cross-section is golden yellow or brownish yellow, with neatly arranged, layer upon layer of concentric ring-like lamellae.

Traditional Chinese medicine holds that cow bezoar, being a gallstone, is formed by disease condensing between the heart and the liver and gallbladder of cattle, and therefore it can treat diseases of the human heart and liver and gallbladder (Compendium of Materia Medica).

II. What Is the Price of Cow Bezoar per Gram?

In recent years, the amount of cow bezoar used has been continuously increasing, and the price has been continuously rising. On the market, the price of cow bezoar is about 345,000 per kilogram, about 345 yuan per gram. There has long been a folk saying that “one liang of cow bezoar, two liang of gold.” Nowadays, what is mostly used is so-called artificial cow bezoar, which uses cholic acid to imitate cow bezoar and is made by artificially extracting cattle bile or pig bile. Its medicinal properties and effects are similar to those of natural cow bezoar.

The latest prices are as follows:

III. Cow Bezoar Benefits, Effects and Contraindications

1. Benefits and effects of natural cow bezoar

(1) Main components: It contains cholic acid, bilirubin and its calcium salts, and also contains cholesterol, ergosterol, palmitic acid, lecithin, vitamin D, as well as a colorless crystalline component with a molecular formula equivalent to C24H11O3N, and copper, iron, magnesium, etc.

(2) Pharmacological effects: opens the orifices and transforms phlegm, clears heat and relieves convulsions.

(3) Indications:

① Used for symptoms such as high fever with mental confusion and convulsive spasms in warm-heat diseases and infantile convulsions. Cow bezoar clears the heart and cools the liver, and has the effect of stopping wind and convulsions and calming the mind.

② Used for symptoms such as mental confusion, lockjaw, and phlegm rales caused by warm-heat disease entering the pericardium, stroke, convulsions, and epilepsy when phlegm-heat clouds the heart orifices. This product can clear heart heat, transform phlegm, open the orifices and awaken the spirit.

③ Used for symptoms of heat toxin congestion and binding such as swollen and painful throat, ulceration, and boils and toxic sores. This product has a strong ability to clear heat and detoxify. To treat swollen and painful throat and mouth and tongue sores, it is often used together with Scutellaria baicalensis, realgar, and rhubarb, as in Cow Bezoar Detoxification Pill; if the throat is swollen, painful, and ulcerated, it can be ground with pearl into powder and blown into the throat, as in Pearl and Cow Bezoar Powder; for treating boils, toxic sores, breast cancer, and scrofula, it is used together with musk, frankincense, and myrrh to clear heat and detoxify and invigorate blood and dissipate nodules, as in Rhinoceros Horn and Cow Bezoar Pill.

④ Used for symptoms such as high fever and restlessness, mental confusion and delirium, and convulsive epilepsy and spasms. Mental confusion and delirium and convulsive epilepsy and spasms are mostly caused by high fever or phlegm-heat clouding the clear orifices. Cow bezoar can clear heart heat and sweep away turbid phlegm, and can achieve the effect of opening the orifices and calming convulsions. Clinically, this product is often made into pills and powders with heat-clearing medicines and orifice-opening medicines such as Coptis chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis, Gardenia jasminoides, and musk, and applied to coma and convulsive pain due to excessive heat.

⑤ Used for swollen, painful, and rotting throat and various heat-toxin sores and carbuncles. Cow bezoar is an important medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying, and can be applied to swollen and painful throat, swollen and painful sores and carbuncles caused by heat toxin, and some surgical diseases belonging to yang syndromes. It is often combined with indigo naturalis and borneol to treat swollen and painful throat; combined with honeysuckle, Paris polyphylla, and licorice to treat sores and ulcers.

2. Artificially synthesized cow bezoar

(1) Character identification: It is in powder form, light pink, with a relatively fishy odor, a relatively strong bitter taste, and no cooling sensation.

(2) Clinical application: After many years of clinical and pharmaceutical application practice, its effect is considered to be similar to that of natural cow bezoar. Animal experiments show effects such as anticonvulsant, antipyretic, antibacterial, and expectorant. Preliminary clinical observation in the treatment of diseases such as upper respiratory tract infection and pneumonia shows that its antipyretic and expectorant effects are relatively certain (the same as natural cow bezoar), and it also has a clear anti-inflammatory effect and reduces secretions in purulent tonsillitis.

3. Dietary contraindications for cow bezoar

Excessive use of cow bezoar can lead to poisoning, manifested as increased gastrointestinal activity, diarrhea, increased skeletal muscle activity, twitching, and spasms, and in severe cases, inhibition. Blood pressure drops, arrhythmia occurs, red blood cells and hemoglobin decrease, and finally the patient becomes semi-comatose or comatose, eventually dying from respiratory and circulatory failure.

Rescue methods:

(1) In the early stage, induce vomiting and gastric lavage, then take a general antidote.

(2) Give central stimulants to counteract its central inhibitory effect.

(3) If blood pressure drops, a vasopressor can be added to intravenous fluids.

(4) If abdominal pain and diarrhea are severe, belladonna tablets may be taken orally or atropine sulfate may be injected subcutaneously. Repeat as necessary.

(5) The taurine contained in cow bezoar has an excitatory effect on the heart and a slight dilating effect on blood vessels. To prevent the appearance of “irregular pulse,” reserpine may be injected intramuscularly or taken orally in advance.

(6) Other symptomatic treatment.

(7) 15 grams of tea leaves, 9 grams of Schisandra chinensis, 6 grams of ginseng (decocted first), and 4.5 grams of licorice, decocted in water, taken continuously for 2 to 3 doses.

(8) 15 grams of Lobelia chinensis, 6 grams of camphor wood (added later), 9 grams of Magnolia officinalis, 12 grams of Dendrobium, and 9 grams of Ophiopogon japonicus, decocted twice with water, the decoctions combined, and taken in 2 divided doses, once every 4 hours.

IV. Artificial Cow Bezoar

In many famous traditional Chinese medicine formulas in our country, cow bezoar plays an irreplaceable role. At present, about 650 Chinese patent medicines in China contain cow bezoar. For a long time, natural cow bezoar resources have been scarce and difficult to meet the needs of clinical medication. For this reason, since 1972 the national drug regulatory authorities have successively approved 3 cow bezoar substitutes, namely: artificial cow bezoar, cultivated cow bezoar, and in vitro cultured cow bezoar.

(1) Artificial cow bezoar

Artificial cow bezoar is mostly in the form of earthy yellow or light yellow loose powder, bitter or slightly fishy in taste, with no cooling sensation. Artificially synthesized cow bezoar is a substitute for cow bezoar artificially prepared according to the main components of natural cow bezoar——bilirubin, cholic acid, cholesterol, inorganic salts, etc. Its production process is simple and the price is very cheap, and to a certain extent it meets the medication needs of ordinary people. At present, most Chinese patent medicines in China use this cow bezoar. However, compared with natural cow bezoar, there is still a certain gap in composition, structure, and medicinal effect.

(2) Traditional cultivated cow bezoar

Cultivated cow bezoar is a gallstone produced in the cattle body by artificial methods, similar to artificially cultivated pearls. Traditional cultivated cow bezoar requires inoculation in the cattle body, and the success rate of obtaining high-quality cultivated cow bezoar is relatively low, making large-scale production difficult.

(3) In vitro cultured cow bezoar

In vitro cultured cow bezoar is a cow bezoar substitute artificially synthesized in a factory-like environment by simulating the formation principle of cattle gallstones.

Whether natural cow bezoar or artificial cow bezoar, their effects are very great. Here it is necessary to remind everyone that cow bezoar is not suitable to be taken in large amounts, and you must follow the doctor's guidance.