Ox Gallstones East Timor

During the Qin (221-206 BCE) and Western Han Dynasties (206 BCE-25 CE), ox gallstones were considered a superior therapeutic drug.

It was mainly used for treating infant convulsions. It was also prescribed for children with polydipsia, diarrhea, and vomiting “caused by fright” as well as nocturnal crying.

What are they?

Ox gallstones east Timor are a by-product of cattle slaughter that is highly prized as a precious Chinese herbal medicine. They can be sold as a natural gallstone, or combined with other ingredients in a proprietary Chinese medicine (CMM) formulation.

In Chinese medicine, bile is used as a drug to treat a wide range of diseases and disorders. This is mainly due to its antipyretic, anticonvulsive, sedative, and antibacterial properties.

Since the time of the ancient Chinese, ox bile has been extensively employed as a therapeutic drug in TCM. It contains a high concentration of bilirubin, which is a very valuable bile pigment. When acidified, ox bile can be extracted into an organic solvent to provide pure bilirubin in its unconjugated form.

Despite their numerous uses in TCM, ox bile is still a scarce resource. The domestic supply of ox bile is extremely small and is insufficient to meet the demand of China’s pharmaceutical industry for its various propriety Chinese medicines.

As a result, synthetic/ artificial gallstones have been developed to fill the gap in the supply of natural gallstones. The chemical composition and medicinal value of the ox gallstones produced by these methods are similar to those spontaneously formed by a diseased ox.

While the natural ox gallstones are of a higher value, it is difficult to collect enough from abattoirs to satisfy the demand. Moreover, the ox gallstones are a solid artifact and not easily removed from the oxen.

However, in recent decades, a method has been developed to “implant” a small pinhead-sized natural ox gallstone into the gallbladder of a restrained ox. This method has been demonstrated to successfully produce a large pigment gallstone within 1-3 years of the implanting. This is a more cost-effective and practical way to obtain ox gallstones than the traditional method of slaughtering the ox and collecting the gallbladder.

How do they get there?

For more than 2,500 years, Chinese doctors have used ox gallstones to treat an array of diseases. They contain a substance called calcium bilirubinate, which has antipyretic, anticonvulsive and bacterial growth inhibition properties–and can even help stimulate the body’s immune system to fight off pathogens by activating certain nuclear receptors and signaling pathways in liver cells.

They also act as a natural form of antioxidant–and can even help protect against COVID-19, a deadly virus that causes blindness and kidney failure by impairing the production of reactive oxygen molecules in the body. These properties make ox gallstones highly sought-after in China, where they are often sold alongside other traditional herbal medicines.

To get to market, these precious stones need to be stored and dried out carefully before they’re shipped to foreign buyers; ideally wrapped in tissue and nestled inside egg cartons or biscuit tins. These measures not only preserve the bilirubin–which degenerates in light–but also minimise the risk of breakages as they’re handled, transported and stored.

Historically, gallstones were often sourced from cattle–especially cows with yellowing hooves that were more likely to be carrying them than healthy ones–but the practice has now spread to other livestock species including sheep and goats. As a result, ox gallstones are now being bought and sold by people across the world–via darknet marketplaces and private Facebook groups–and their prices are on the rise.

Aside from being a useful commodity to keep on hand, gallstones are also highly coveted as a source of gold for Chinese silversmiths. This was particularly true in ancient times, when gold-dipped ox gallstones were used as a form of jewelry to ward off evil spirits and protect the wearer from poisonous snake bites and scorpion stings.

When gallstones are harvested from cattle or oxen, they are usually cleaned and dried out, then crushed into pills and pressed into bars, with a cocktail of herbs often included to boost their effectiveness. They can also be mixed with other medicinal ingredients, like buffalo horn and deer musk, for a range of effects.

These sacrificial biles are no longer just a luxury for the wealthy–they’re now an integral part of an industry that is raking in tens of millions of dollars each year in the world’s largest gallstone trade. But before you buy a batch of ox gallstones, it’s important to know where they come from and how they’re collected, processed and sold.

How do they get processed?

A lot of people are wondering how gallstones, a by-product of slaughtering cattle, get processed at meatworks. That is especially true since Monday’s report quoting prices as high as $20,000 a kilogram, which has led to claims that processors are making a fortune from them, at beef producers’ expense.

First of all, natural gallstones are incredibly rare and difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities. Moreover, they are not suitable for mass production. Just think about oysters, for example: you have to open an awful lot of them before you can find one non-cultured pearl.

This makes ox gallstones very valuable for Chinese medicine. There are more than 154 traditional Chinese herbal preparations that contain ox gallstones as an ingredient. These include a variety of drugs that have been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years.

For instance, ox gallstones have long been a valuable ingredient in Chinese medicines for treating hyperpyrexia-induced infantile convulsions. They were also a treatment for jaundice and the onset of scurvy in old age.

Ox gallstones are naturally occurring pigment stones composed of pure calcium bilirubinate. When acidified, they provided bilirubin that was useful for multiple therapeutic purposes in TCM. This bilirubin is also called “Ox gallstone bilirubin” or “Ox-cow bilirubin” and has a wide range of pharmacological properties. They are antipyretic, anticonvulsive, antihypertensive, bacterial growth inhibition and an expectorant.

In China, ox gallstones have been used for over 2500 years to procure unconjugated bilirubin. This form of bilirubin was used in treatment of various diseases and was considered to be superior (i.e., top grade) in TCM.

After extracting gallstones from cattle’s intestines, they are washed with cold water to remove blood clots and impurities and then dried for two or three weeks in a dark and well ventilated environment at a temperature of approx. 20 degrees Celsius.

When the gallstones are fully dried they are packed into hermetically sealed bags. They are then shipped to markets around the world in large quantities.

Depending on demand and the availability, there are different types of gallstones available at any time. Generally, there is a very high demand for stones that are light yellow or golden in colour with a “natural” odor of cattle. These are mainly obtained from the ox, but yak gallstones are also in high demand as well.

How do they get to market?

A crackdown on sticky-fingered gutties has forced them to change their game if they want to go home with a stone in their pocket.

In the old days, a gallstone buyer would show up once or twice a year and buy up all of the loot from the slaughterhouse. He’d buy the smallest, most colourful specimens for a quick buck, leaving the rest to be bagged up and sold in a metal bin. Troy, a meatworker from Queensland, remembers one such haul.

He weighed it up on a set of jeweller’s scales and shelled out a suitcase full of cash–$2,000 for a 57-gram cricket ball-sized rock, no less. That’s not an uncommon occurrence, and Troy estimates that he’s made around $8,000 selling gallstones since the new rules of the game went into effect.

But the real money in the gallstone business is not being made by processors; it’s being raked in by abattoirs. Sunshine Trading–a family business with a pedigree in the gallstone industry–has become an institutional juggernaut, dealing with more than 50 abattoirs across Australia.

Gerard Murtagh, director of international sales at Sunshine Trading, says that for every 1,000 cows he deals with, it’s “reasonable to expect 100 grams of the stuff – at the market rate.” In the context of his business, that’s worth a lot of money.

Considering their high demand in the Chinese herbal medicine market, it’s not surprising that gallstone brokers are paying big bucks for them. But the truth is that the market is dominated by a handful of players. The biggest of them all is Sunshine Trading, a firm that rakes in more than $200k per year from the grey market.

Ox Gallstones East Timor