How Much Are Ox Gallstones Really Worth?

Gallstones extracted from cattle are a precious Chinese herbal medicine. They are sold either as a natural product or mixed with other ingredients to form a proprietary Chinese medicine.

The price of gallstones varies according to their dryness, colour, texture and size. Whole, lustrous golden specimens attract the highest prices.

Cattle

If you’ve seen any news stories about the price of gallstones – the stones that are retrieved at abattoirs during bile extraction on the eviscera table – you’ve probably been tempted to believe that processors are making a fortune from them. But the truth is, they’re an extremely rare commodity. Think oysters: you need to open a huge number of them to come across a single natural pearl.

The same holds true for gallstones in beef: they’re found in a tiny fraction of slaughter cattle. A spokesman for one of Australia’s biggest dealers in cattle gallstones says there are only about 200kg of them produced each year.

That’s a relatively small portion of the billions of cattle slaughtered each week – and yet there’s still a lucrative market for this precious byproduct. The question, then, is whether or not meat processing plants are raking in big profits from gallstones at the expense of beef producers.

But the answer to that depends on where the cattle are slaughtered, and how much gallstones they contain. Plants killing young bulls – like those at Lakes Creek in Rockhampton – find the highest levels of gallstones, because they’re most likely to be found in the fatty tissue of the rump and flank.

Alternatively, cattle at smaller plants might be more likely to contain a mix of cholesterol and pigment stones (mixed gallstones) that could be worth up to $20,000 a kilogram. These would be sold as Chinese medicine.

These types of gallstones contain a mixture of different salts, including cholesterol, bilirubin and calcium. The presence of these substances in gallstones can be used as a tool to diagnose disease.

For example, a study of mixed gallstones found that the percentage of cholesterol in them was correlated with their severity, while the amount of bilirubin was related to the degree of inflammation. This suggests that a balance between cholesterol and bilirubin can help prevent gallstones from developing into more serious forms of the condition.

That’s why gallstone brokers pay up to $57 USD per gram for the stones they purchase – and it’s not just at meat processing plants. A few online traders have posted calls out on private butchers’ Facebook groups offering $50,000 a kilogram for the precious stones.

Harvesting

A few years ago, the frenzied hunt for the best gallstones on the kill floor of Australia’s biggest abattoirs was an exciting hobby for meat workers who could get away with it. They were able to drop a rock into their boot and go home with the gold, as long as it was big enough to make it worth lugging.

The best-value stones are golden, lustrous and smooth in appearance. Dark or pitted ones are not valued as much, and if they have calcium inclusions in them, the value is significantly reduced.

Gallstones are formed in the gall bladder of cattle when bile (containing bilirubin, cholic acid and other chemical components) is extracted from their intestines during slaughter. They can be round, egg shaped or square shaped and are often tube-like in appearance, like a piece of a bile duct.

Pigment gallstones, also called hard pigment gallstones, are formed when bile contains a high concentration of bilirubin. These pigments dissolve poorly in bile and stick together to form particles that grow in size and eventually become black or brown gallstones, which are physically hard.

They can be divided into three main categories, depending on the composition of their chemical constituents: cholesterol stones, pigment stones and mixed gallstones. Cholesterol stones are made up of bilirubin and other chemical constituents while pigment gallstones consist of bilirubin and cholic acid and are harder in nature.

There is a lot of demand for gallstones in the Chinese market, where they are used to treat a range of ailments. They are sold either as natural or combined with other ingredients to create proprietary Chinese medicine.

However, there is a shortage of supply. According to some reports, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry requires about 100 metric tons of natural gallstones each year, but domestic supply is barely one MT. This has led to the development of synthetic gallstones, which can fill the gap in the market.

Ox gallstones are a byproduct of the extraction process at meat processing plants. They are usually collected from slaughtered cattle during the bile extraction process on the eviscera table.

Processing

MONDAY’s report about gallstone theft at an abattoir in southeast Queensland has sparked a huge amount of interest in what these mysterious and beautiful stones are actually worth. Some are comparing them to diamonds and claiming that processors must be making a fortune off them, at beef producers’ expense.

Ox Gallstones are formed from bile and other waste products from the liver. They can form in a number of shapes and sizes, but the most valuable ones are whole, smooth, lustrous golden stones. Dark or pitted stones are of lesser value and are usually not sold.

The presence of bilirubin in bile causes it to dissolve poorly and stick together to form particles that grow in size and become hard pigment type gallstones of black or brown color (Swobodnik et al. 1990; Afdhal 2004).

Pigment gallstones can also be formed in the absence of bilirubin, when calcium, magnesium, and other minerals in bile combine to form a composite substance called calcium bilirubinate. In addition, bilirubin is an important component in the formation of a number of other components in gallstones such as calcium salts, oxalates and phosphates.

Characterizing the chemical composition of these crystalline substances is important in understanding their impact on disease development and enhancing patient care. In this respect, FTIR and WD-XRF techniques are useful for the analysis of a variety of chemical compounds in gallstones such as bilirubin, calcium, phosphates, oxalate, oxalate salts, and pigments.

FTIR analysis provides a detailed view of the composition and structure of the different parts of the gallstones, whereas WD-XRF enables identification of the major, trace, and heavy elements present in the gallstones. These techniques can be used to analyze gallstones from a wide range of spectral energy ranges and can also be combined with other analytical tools such as TOF-SIMS, XRD, AAS, and ICP-AES for more precise analysis.

FTIR and WD-XRF are rapid, inexpensive, and non-destructive analytical methods that can be used to examine the spatial distribution of elements within stones on a micron scale. This information can be used to determine the relative proportions of the different chemical components and also to reveal the underlying mineral composition, which may prove invaluable in understanding the mechanisms that cause disease.

Sale

Several people have expressed their confusion over the value of gallstones since Monday’s report of charges being laid against an abattoir employee in southeast Queensland. One respondent claimed that processors are making a fortune from these precious rocks, at the expense of beef producers.

It is a fact that the cattle industry produces only about 200kg of gallstones each year, but their worth varies dramatically according to quality and shape. Brokers in Australia were reluctant to share their pricing details, but told Beef Central that they can be as valuable as a natural (non-cultured) diamond.

However, it is important to be aware that some ox gallstones may not be the real deal. This is especially true for yak gallstones, which can be made from a camel and are very easy to pass off as ox gallstones.

For this reason, it is essential to examine the stones in order to determine their composition and therapeutic effects. These factors may help to enhance patient care and improve research.

The composition of ox gallstones varies widely and can be influenced by many different factors including bile salts, cholesterol and calcium. In addition, the size of the stone and its texture can also be a determining factor.

In ancient China, ox gallstones were considered one of the most valuable drugs in Chinese medicine. They were used for a variety of disorders, including rheumatic diseases, lumbago and chronic hepatitis.

This is because the ox gallstones are highly effective in relieving pain and promoting rapid healing. They are also thought to relieve tense muscles, and reduce fatigue.

These qualities are especially important for the treatment of infantile convulsions and coma. These conditions are often accompanied by fever and frothy salivation.

Other common ailments treated by ox gallstones are polydipsia and diarrhea. The stones are also effective in treating gastrointestinal upsets and bronchitis.

There are three primary types of ox gallstones: the Sheng Huang, Zhong Huang and Man Huang. The Sheng Huang are the most expensive, consisting of small granules that are green in colour.

They are found in the ducts of the intrahepatic bile and are softer than the Man Huang.

How Much Are Ox Gallstones Really Worth?