The curative use of tiger products in history and heritage of India and Asia

Discover the use of tiger parts and products in history and heritage of medical practices of Ayurveda, ethnic groups of India and in traditional Asian medicine.

ETHNOMEDICINE: The use of tiger products in history and heritage of traditional Indian medicine

The study of how people of a particular culture and region interact and use tiger products and how they classify, identify and relate to them, is called Ethnomedicine.

Since its origin, humankind has relied on animal-based traditional medicine (ATM) for their healthcare. Labeled “zootherapy”, the use of medicines obtained from animals is suggested as a cure for ailments ranging from rheumatism to spasm. One of the most commonly used animal species in ATM is the tiger.

Animal-based traditional medicine is a conservation threat, along with the loss of habitat, to the endangered tiger population.

Ayurveda and the tiger

In India, since times immemorial, there has been a deep and rich understanding and documentation of animals during the Samhita period. Animal parts and their products were used for medicine, making instruments for surgical management and even in diagnosis. There are innumerable instances to show the understanding of animal life in Indian medical traditions.

Ayurveda is the traditional medical science of India, literally meaning ‘Science of Life’, combining the two words, ‘Ayu’ meaning life and ‘Veda’ meaning knowledge. Ayurveda makes extensive use of animal products in different formulations used for preventive and curative medicine.

Nearly 15-20 percent of the Ayurvedic Materia Medica is based on animal derived substances. In Caraka Samhita, the oldest available Ayurvedic classic, 230 types of animals have been mentioned.

Susruta Samhita a text of 1500 BC mentions nearly 225 types of animals. Kasyapa Samhita mentions 256 types of animal substances in approximately 400 references. Majority of these references pertain to animal use as food and medicine.

The Aryans from Middle-east Asia, found both the big cats in plenty in the Gangetic valley. They denoted both of them with a common word “Singha”. The existence of interchangeable names for lions and tigers does gives us a look into the past where both of these cats used to occur in the same landscape. But also suggests that both cats were exchangeably used for deviation and as medicine.

The Vyaghra व्याघ्र (tiger) is described as Pitta Constitution and the Simha (lion) as Kapha. The meat of the tiger is part of the māṃsavarga (‘group of flesh’), which is used throughout Ayurvedic literature. The tiger and lion are grouped as Prasaha प्रसह Varga, animal or birds who take their food by snatching.

• Qualities of the food obtained from Meat of those which eat by snatching (Prasaha) are:
• Guru – heavy,
• Ushna – hot in potency,
• Snigdha – unctuous, oily
• Madhura – sweet,
• Balavardhana – improves strength and immunity
• Upachaya vardhana – improves body nourishment, plumpness
• Vrushya – aphrodisiac
• Vatahara – Balances Vata and increases Kapha and Pitta.

It is useful for people who do daily exercise and for those having good digestive strength. The meat of meat-eating Prasaha type of animals (those which eat by snatching) is specially useful for patients suffering from chronic piles (Arsha – Hemorrhoids), Grahani – Malabsorption syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Shosha –emaciation. Charaka Samhita recommends Prasaha meat for the treatment of tuberculosis. Vyāghranakha व्याघ्रनख, a tiger’s claw, is also mentioned in the scriptures.

In Unani medicine, approximately 200 animals are used. Materials like animal fat, organs, wool, milk, secretions, excretions, bone, teeth, feathers, hair, horns, shells, and even whole organisms are commonly used as medicine for conditions like rheumatic joints, leucoderma, insomnia, piles, renal calculi, tuberculosis, respiratory diseases, jaundice, wounds, boils, eye diseases, spleen disorders, renal diseases, epilepsy, sexual debility, scabies etc…

In the Indian Materia Medica, which includes Ayurvedic, Unani and Indian home remedies, tiger flesh and fat is listed as a treatment for leprosy and rheumatism.

We can find that people still use various animal products and by-products for the cure of diseases. For example, honey is used as an expectorant, cattle urine has been used as a therapeutic as well as tiger parts.

The tiger is protected in India and so are its products.

Use of the Tiger in Ethnomedicine

Although revered and protected by the taboos of some tribal groups, during its long association with the people of Asia the tiger has been hunted for sport and killed to protect humans and livestock. This, and the fact that there has been trade in tiger body parts, especially the bones, since ancient times, has also contributed to its endangerment.

Many of the animal used in Ayurvedic classics seem to have been incorporated from the rich folk traditions which are widespread and carried by the word of mouth through generations.

Immense knowledge has come down to modern times through folklore as various practices became a part of tradition among various groups.

Tiger, Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) in tribal medicine and magico-religious practices

Medicinal practices of the different ethnic communities of India commonly use a wide variety of tiger parts for ailments like rheumatic conditions, asthma, night blindness, paralysis, general debility, leprosy, impotency, and, read on:

Uses of tiger parts from Colonial literature

There are many superstitions and marvels connected with tigers in India:

The fat, when made into oil, is supposed to give instant relief from rheumatism, when applied to the affected parts.

The lucky bones, found at the point of the shoulder and entirely detached from any other member, give good fortune to any one carrying them. I have never heard of these bones being found in any other animal.
The number of the lobes in the liver is supposed to indicate the age of the animal, a new lobe presumably coming each year, but from my experience I do not believe that this is accurate.

To the long whiskers all sorts of magic are imputed, and care must be taken that they are not removed at the first opportunity by the natives. If cut up and put into food they are supposed to cause certain death, because the juices of the stomach have no effect on them and they puncture that organ.

Ground teeth are used for medicine, the claws impart strength to the owners, while a piece of dried flesh hung around a baby’s neck will protect it from wild beasts.
Great care has to be taken to preserve skins in this climate, alum, salt, and arsenical soap being freely used, while the ears are touched up with a carbolic acid solution.

I once received an application for half a pound of tiger’s fat, presumably for medicinal purposes. Writes Thurston Edgar in Omens and Superstitions of Southern India. (1912), and he continues:

The bones of tigers and leopards ground into powder, and mixed with their fat, gingelly (Sesamum) oil, and a finely powdered blue stone, make an ointment for the cure of syphilitic sores.

The bones of a leopard or hyæna, ground into powder and made into a paste with ox-gall and musk, are said to be a useful ointment for application to rheumatic joints. The addition of the fat of tigers or leopards makes the ointment more effective.

I am told that when, on one occasion, a European shot a tiger, the Natives were so keen on securing some of the fat, that the shikāris (hunters) came to him to decide as to the proper distribution among themselves and the camp servants. [sic]

Oriental medicine and the tiger

Nearly every “part” of a tiger, including its feces (for boils and piles), has a prescribed benefit according to the tenets of Asian medicine and/or folklore.

Asian medicine uses several tiger parts:

• The milk and vagina of female Tigers,
• The penis of male Tigers and
• The claws of both sexes are used as Asian home remedies.

Bones found in Tiger feces are said to soothe burns, cure tetanus and treat alcoholism.

Tiger bone is used in Vietnam to make a balm, which is said to help assorted ailments, including rheumatism and general weakness. This “supertonic” is taken to mitigate the effects of stress and environmental pollution.

In Taiwan, the humerus (bone) is said to contain the strongest healing powers.

In Malaysia, medicated massage oil claiming to contain Tiger bone or Tiger bone substitutes is sold for external application for sore joints and muscles.
Among more commonly used Tiger parts in Lao traditional medicine are the teeth, which are taken powdered to help relieve fever, while the Lao Research Institute for Medicinal Plants, run by the Ministry of Health, listed Tiger gall bladder as part of a mix to treat diabetes. Tiger claws are used as a sedative, and Tiger nose leather for dog bites.

Bottles labeled as tiger fat were sold at Poipet wildlife market in Cambodia throughout the 1990s. Bits of hairless tiger skin have also been seen on sale in Cambodia to relief of fever.

Zoos in China and Taiwan have done brisk business in tiger urine for rheumatism and feces for alcoholism.

In Myanmar, the small first rib bones of the tiger are known as “Tiger strength” and are soaked in wine to make a strength-giving tonic.

Food from wild animals, and tiger meat in particular, is considered a powerful health tonic by some Asian cultures.

Parts of the tiger used in Chinese medicine and home remedies

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), more than 1500 animal species have been recorded to be of some medicinal use. Tiger parts, horn of rhinoceros and wild buffalo are commonly used in the same ancient remedies that have been prescribed for nearly 4000 years.

Concoctions were compiled in Pen Ts’ao Kang Mu (The Great Herbal) in 1596 during the Ming dynasty. Demand for the most highly prized items, including rhino horn, pangolin scales, and tiger parts, has nearly hunted these creatures off the planet.

Chinese culture believes that nearly all parts of the tiger can be used to derive some medicinal cure for any number of ailments. Here are some examples of how tiger parts and their derivatives are used in traditional Chinese medicine:

• Tiger claws: used as a sedative for insomnia (wearing a piece of jewelry with claws is supposed to instill ‘courage.’)
• Teeth: used to treat fever
• Fat: used to treat leprosy and rheumatism
• Nose leather: used to treat superficial wounds such as bites
• Tiger bone: used as an anti-inflammatory drug to treat rheumatism and arthritis, general weakness, headaches, stiffness or paralysis in lower back and legs and dysentery
• Eyeballs: used to treat epilepsy and malaria
• Tail: used to treat skin diseases
• Bile: used to treat convulsions in children associated with meningitis
• Whiskers: used to treat toothaches
• Brain: used to treat laziness and pimples
• Penis: used in love potions such as tiger soup, as an aphrodisiac
• Dung or feces: used to treat boils, hemorrhoids and cure alcoholism
• Tiger’s heart:consumption will improve ‘courage, strength and agility’
• Small bones in a tiger’s feet: tied to a child’s wrists are said to be a sure cure for ‘convulsions’
• Tiger’s skin: to drive away ‘ghosts or evil spirits’
• Tiger’s leg dipped in oil and kept in front of the house- to ward off evil spirits.

Tiger bones 虎骨/虎骨/hǔ gǔ for health

Tiger bone is known in the Oriental-medicine and pharmaceutical industries by the name Os tigris. It is called hu gu in Mandarin Chinese, hogul in Korean and kokotsu in Japanese.

The commercial demand for Tiger-bone medicine is far from a new phenomenon: Asians have been using it for more than 1000 years. The first published reference in China to tiger bone as medicine appeared in 500 AD, in a text entitled Collection of Commentaries on the Classic of the Materia Medica.

The practice of Chinese medicine – and hence the use of tiger bone as a medicine has spread from China to Korea, Japan and throughout the Asian world.

Among all the parts of a tiger used for medicine, the bones are the most valued. And among all the bones in a Tiger’s skeleton, none is so coveted as the humerus, which is the upper bone of the front legs.

It is also the only bone in a tiger’s skeleton that can be readily identified as being from the cat family because of a hole which the Chinese call the “phoenix eye” at the distal end.

However, only a skilled scientist can distinguish a tiger humerus from that of another large cat, and it may be impossible even then to differentiate between that of a tiger and a lion.

Apart from the humerus, tiger bones are remarkably similar in appearance to bones of other mammals of similar size.

As a consequence, counterfeit tiger bones often come from bears, wild boars, lynxes, lions and even domestic cattle.

Tiger bone is said to have – in the clinical terms of Chinese medicine – a “warm” effect, which eases “cold” conditions such as body pain. The “cold” condition for which Tiger bone is most often prescribed is rheumatism.

For preparation as medicine, Tiger bone is usually cleaned of any flesh, boiled or toasted in oil or vinegar before use.

Other indications include weakness, stiffness or paralysis of muscles and bones, especially in the lower back and legs.

Tiger bone glue

Tiger bone glue is a medicinal product made from boiled tiger bones, turning the bones into a sticky, thick “glue”.

It is a brown sap-like substance produced by dissolving tiger skeletons in a high-pressure cooker for two to three days.

It is ground into powder before being made into pills, plasters and decoctions containing other herbs, or cut into short segments and soaked in wine.

Now also artificial tiger bone powder (ATBP), an animal-derived traditional Chinese medicine, is being used for treating osteoporosis.

Tiger bone medicine

Tiger-bone plaster, made with musk and often camphor or menthol, is recommended for rheumatism and lower back pain. Plasters are generally made by mixing ground ingredients into a soapy substance which is then spread on a piece of cloth and placed on the skin.

10ml of Tiger bone wine taken twice daily is said to relieve “wind” ailments, for example, headaches, and “cold” ailments, such as rheumatism. It also stimulates the flow of blood and qi, the latter meaning life force in Mandarin.

Tiger-bone balm, popular in Southeast Asia, is a brown paste made by cooking bones for several days, to treat bone ailments such as rheumatism.

The active ingredients in tiger bone, according to Chinese texts, are calcium and protein. Clinical research has shown that tiger bone produces an anti-inflammatory effect in animals with induced arthritis, an analgesic effect in rats, and a calming effect in mice.

The standard dosage for Tiger bone taken orally to treat rheumatic pain is three to six grams per day. At this rate, a daily user of Tiger bone would consume between one and two kilogrames of bone per year. Extrapolated further, the world’s last remaining wild tigers would provide, at most, a year’s supply of medicine to 125 800 daily users, equivalent to far less than even one percent of China’s present human population.

Meanwhile, specialists in Chinese medicine recommend Leopard Panthera pardus bones as legitimate and effective substitutes for those of tigers, with the caveat that they are not as strong in medicinal properties as tiger bones.

Dog bones may also be substituted, though they can be excessive in their desired effect. Chinese researchers have recently begun promoting pika (a burrowing lagomorph of the family Ochotonidae) bones as another effective substitute for tiger bones.

TRAFFIC surveys in 2005/2006 found little tiger bone or the bones of other Asian big cats for sale for Chinese medicines. Most medicine sellers were aware that these species are protected and banned from trade, and few were willing to break the law by offering tiger, lion or leopard bones for sale.

Tiger farms of Asia

Tiger farming must be one of the most extreme cases of man commodifying wildlife and the natural world. Speed breeding, factory farming and then cutting up of body parts of the most majestic of predators on the planet takes it to extreme.

Karl Ammann / The Tiger Mafia

China banned domestic tiger bone trade in 1993, though shadowy networks remain. More tigers now live in captivity, on so-called ‘tiger farms’, than in the wild.

The prominence of these farms is highest in Vietnam, China and Thailand. On the farms, tigers are raised as livestock for the sole purpose of using their skeletons and body parts to produce traditional medicines and tonics.

China has a domestic law to ban the tiger bone trade and it is a signatory of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits international commercial trade in tiger parts. However, critical legal “grey” areas exist, most notably the allowance of captive breeding. As a result, today China has over 6,000 captive-bred tigers living on tiger farms.

With the tiger far more endangered than the panda in China, it should be recognized as the “Panda’s Little Brother” Xiongmao de xiongdi.

Tigers are killed for their skin, fangs, meat, claws, and whiskers – parts that fetch high prices on the black market for use in traditional medicine and crafts.

Tigers were classified as globally endangered in 1986. The next year, an international treaty banned cross-border trade in tiger parts, driving the market underground.

Although tiger hunting is illegal everywhere, the killing has accelerated. Prices for tigers, dead or alive, continue to soar as populations shrink.

Markets for Tiger-bone medicines in the early 1990s

Major supplying markets (exporters and sellers of Tiger bone) are Indonesia, China, India, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh.
Major processing markets (factory-manufactured Tiger-bone medicines) China, South Korea
Major entrepots importing and exporting Tiger bone and Tiger-bone medicines are Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau
Major consumers (importers) of Tiger bone are South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China,
Major consumers (importers) of Tiger-bone medicines are Japan, USA, Canada, Belgium, Malaysia

Today, Vietnam is one of the biggest consumers of tiger medicine. One can buy tiger bones, skins or organs at Hanoi airport. Regardless of the extent to which the trade is policed, bits of tiger especially blood, eyeballs and genitals, appear wherever there is demand.

In 1952, with few Siberian tigers left, Russia became the first country to ban the hunting of tigers, still it has become a key supplier in the tiger trade. The United States has probably played a major and previously underestimated role in the trafficking of tiger parts, according to a new study.

Researchers and scientist believe poaching and wildlife trafficking is alive and well despite many laws prohibiting the hunting and trade of endangered species.

In India, a ban on tiger shooting was imposed in 1970, the Wildlife Protection Act was passed in 1972 and the Indian Board for Wildlife was set up in 1972. Project Tiger was launched in 1973 in nine reserve forests. There are 58 tiger reserves in India.

Tigers are still killed in India for retaliation and for profit.

Nearly 15–20 percent of Ayurvedic medicine is based on animal-derived substances. In Bahia State, in the northeast of Brazil, over 180 medicinal animals have been recorded; in China it is 1500 animal products used in TCM.

For centuries, healers and indigenous people have been collecting medicines from local plants and animals without threatening the population dynamics of the species because of the low level of harvesting.

Loss of traditional knowledge has an impact on the development of modern medicine. Medicinal folklore over the years has proved to be an invaluable guide in present day to the screening of important modern drugs.

Human health is dependent on biodiversity and on the natural functioning of healthy ecosystems.

Many animal species used in Ethnomedicine are listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Animals and Plants. It was adopted in 1973 and provides the legal framework governing international trade in wild animals and plants; including provisions on the penalization of illegal trade, confiscation of illegally traded specimens, and mechanisms for inter-regional cooperation.

Over 40,900 species – including roughly 6,610 species of animals and 34,310 species of plants – are protected by CITES against over-exploitation through international trade. They are listed in the three CITES Appendices.

Consequently, it is illegal to trade in these animals and their products in all member countries. This would automatically exclude medicinal use of any products originating from the tiger. Nevertheless, these fauna and fora are not safe.

The initiative, Project Predator, is to provide training to law enforcement agencies to combat illegal trade and other tiger-related crimes, and strengthen their ability to work with wildlife officials by using advanced methods of investigation.

Poached for their skins for decorative purposes, or for their body parts for medicinal uses, tigers still suffer significantly from illegal trade. A majority of tigers are now restricted to small pockets of habitat, while several geographical populations are on the brink of extinction.

Note: This post does not contain medical advice.

Ethnomedicinal knowledge plays a crucial role in indigenous healthcare systems.

Various critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), near threatened (NT), and vulnerable (VU) vertebrate species (listed on the IUCN Red List) are being used and traded for traditional medicinal purposes.

Education and awareness programs can inform community members about alternative treatment options, such as the use of medicinal plants or locally more available species, instead of using endangered species.

Collaboration between traditional and Western medicine systems can also provide holistic healthcare solutions that respect both cultural beliefs and conservation objectives.

However, interventions must be implemented with cultural sensitivity, involving local communities in decision-making.

The extents of Tiger Mythology, Folkore and Medicine in Asia are hardly to be seized here, there is still much more to discover.

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