Chicken gizzard lining is the keratinous inner wall of the chicken's gizzard. The chicken's gizzard is what people commonly refer to as the chicken crop. Chickens do not have teeth; after swallowing food, it is stored in the gizzard, and then they swallow many sand grains. Through the contraction and peristalsis of the gizzard, the food is ground up, making it easier to digest and absorb. Because of this, chicken gizzard lining also has the effect of promoting digestion and resolving food stagnation. For medicinal use, it is often used raw or stir-fried.
I. Efficacy of Chicken Gizzard Lining:
Chicken Gizzard Membrane tastes sweet and is neutral. It enters the spleen, stomach, small intestine, and bladder meridians. Its functions includeStrengthen the spleen and promote digestion, secure essence and stop seminal emission, dissolve stones and remove accumulationIts characteristics include low cost, convenient administration, and safety and reliability. It is particularly effective in treating food stagnation and stone syndromes, making it an excellent remedy for common ailments among ordinary people. At the same time, chicken gizzard lining is also a representative of animal organ therapy in traditional Chinese medicine, reflecting the wisdom of ancient ancestors in their way of life. All things in nature are interconnected and mutually restraining; when used appropriately, everything can serve as medicine. This is the profound depth of traditional Chinese medicine.
Modern commonly used forFood stagnation and indigestion, vomiting and diarrhea, infantile malnutrition, enuresis, seminal emission, painful urinary stones, gallbladder distension and hypochondriac paintreatment of conditions such as
Summary of Famous Works by Renowned Authors:
The Classic of Materia Medica: "Primarily treats diarrhea."
Bie Lu: "It governs the promotion of urination and treats enuresis. It eliminates heat and stops restlessness."
Rihuazi's Materia Medica: "Treats spermatorrhea and hematuria, metrorrhagia and leukorrhea, intestinal wind with diarrhea and dysentery. This refers to the yellow inner lining of the gizzard."
Compendium of Materia Medica: "Treats infantile malnutrition due to improper feeding, addresses adult strangury, counteracts gastric reflux, resolves alcohol accumulation, primarily treats throat obstruction and tonsillitis, as well as all types of oral ulcers, dental ulcers, and various sores."
"Southern Yunnan Materia Medica": "It soothes the middle and strengthens the spleen, aids digestion and regulates the stomach. It treats stagnation of milk and food in children, distended abdomen with prominent veins, and accumulations and malnutrition."
"Jade Carving Medicine Explanation": "Chicken gizzard lining supports the middle and dries the earth, treats diarrhea, flooding and vaginal discharge, blood in urine and stool, throat impediment and tonsillitis, mouth sores and gum ulcers, incontinence and seminal emission, alcohol and food stagnation, stomach reflux and diaphragm obstruction, and also disperses welling abscesses and flat abscesses on the back."
Ben Cao Bei Yao: "It can eliminate water and grain, remove heat and stop restlessness, unblock the small intestine and bladder. It treats diarrhea and dysentery with frequent bowel movements, enuresis and hematuria, uterine bleeding and leukorrhea, intestinal wind, diaphragmatic wasting and regurgitation, and infantile food-induced malaria."
II. Compatibility and Application of Chicken Gizzard Lining:
1. For indigestion, food stagnation, and infantile malnutrition, etc. Chicken gizzard lining has a strong ability to promote digestion and also functions to invigorate the spleen and stomach. To treat indigestion, food stagnation, infantile malnutrition, etc., fried chicken gizzard lining can be used alone, ground into powder and taken, with significant therapeutic effects.
For treating indigestion syndromes such as food stagnation and abdominal distension, it can be combined with hawthorn and malt. For treating infantile malnutrition, it is often combined with spleen-invigorating and qi-tonifying herbs such as white atractylodes rhizome, Chinese yam, and poria.
Zhang Xichun said, "Using chicken gizzard lining as organ therapy, if combined with equal parts of atractylodes, it becomes a key medicine for digesting stasis and a wonderful product for strengthening and tonifying the spleen and stomach. When the spleen and stomach are robust, they are better able to transport and transform the medicinal power to eliminate accumulations."
Modern research has found that chicken gizzard lining contains a type of gastrin, which is also a protease. After consumption, it can enhance gastrointestinal motility and, more importantly, promote the secretion of digestive enzymes and digestive fluids in the human body, thereby strengthening digestive function. As a result, it has a strong ability to aid digestion.
2. For urinary tract stones and gallstones. Chicken gizzard lining has the function of dissolving hard masses and eliminating stones, and can treat stones in various parts of the human body. It can be taken alone as a powdered form or often combined with Lysimachia christinae. When combined with Lysimachia christinae, Curcuma aromatica, and Lygodium japonicum, it forms the Four Gold Decoction. This formula can serve as a foundational prescription for treating various stone diseases, and modifications based on clinical symptoms often yield excellent results.
3. For chronic illness with blood stasis, accumulation of masses, amenorrhea, etc. Chicken gizzard lining can both promote digestion and resolve masses, and is particularly effective for treating masses and blood stasis. For treating masses in women, amenorrhea and blood deficiency in unmarried women, and consumptive diseases in men, it is often combined with Astragalus, Codonopsis, Atractylodes, Sparganium, and Zedoary, as in the Decoction for Regulating the Chong Meridian.
For treating severe consumptive disease with extreme emaciation, presenting with symptoms of fever and weak, rapid pulse, or for women with blood depletion leading to amenorrhea, it is often combined with raw Chinese yam, Scrophularia ningpoensis, and Atractylodes macrocephala, known as the Zisheng Decoction.
Zhang Xichun often used chicken gizzard lining in combination with blood-activating and stasis-resolving herbs such as Atractylodes macrocephala, hematite, frankincense, myrrh, and Salvia miltiorrhiza to treat symptoms such as gastric fullness, inability to eat, and cardiac obstruction. This approach also leveraged the stasis-resolving properties of chicken gizzard lining, often achieving excellent results, which is worthy of reference.
Zhang Xichun said, "Chicken gizzard membrane not only can eliminate accumulations in the spleen and stomach, but also can dissolve accumulations anywhere in the organs. Therefore, it can cure long-standing abdominal masses in men and abdominal masses in women when taken over a long period. Moreover, in cases of consumptive diseases, the meridians and collaterals are often obstructed. Adding chicken gizzard membrane to tonifying and nourishing medicines can dissolve the obstructions in the meridians and collaterals, thereby curing the disease."
4. For enuresis, seminal emission, and other syndromes. Chicken gizzard lining also has the effect of consolidating essence and stopping leakage. For treating kidney deficiency enuresis, seminal emission, and other syndromes, it is often combined with mantis egg-case, raspberry, dodder seed, lotus seed, and other herbs to warm and tonify kidney qi and consolidate the lower origin.
III. Usage and Dosage of Chicken Gizzard Lining:
Chicken gizzard lining is more suitable for swallowing after being ground into powder, and it can also be used in decoctions. When swallowed as powder, the dosage is a few grams each time; the common dosage in decoctions ranges from a few grams to over ten grams; if it is the main ingredient in a prescription, it can also be used in amounts of several tens of grams or more.
Raw chicken gizzard has strong effects in resolving stagnation and eliminating stones, but its unpleasant odor makes it unsuitable for grinding into powder for oral consumption. Stir-fried chicken gizzard, on the other hand, is more inclined to invigorate the spleen and stimulate appetite, making it suitable for grinding into powder for oral consumption, though its potency is slightly weaker.
For the treatment of pediatric anorexia and malnutrition, there is now a ready-made Jineijin Powder available for selection.
IV. Application Notes for Chicken Gizzard Lining:
Chicken Gizzard Membrane is effective in resolving food stagnation, thusPatients with spleen and stomach deficiency but without accumulation should use with caution。
The author believes that pregnant women should also use it with caution.
