The Dong'e Ejiao Co, with HQ in Shandong province, is China's largest ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) producer, and held a festival and forum for this form of traditional Chinese medicine, during the winter solstice, on Dec 21 in the province's Dong'e county, where the medicine comes from.

This is the ninth ejiao festival and the organizer invited a large number of experts from the Information Association for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmaceuticals, the China Academy of Chinese Medical Science, and Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to discuss ejiao's theory and use in traditional medicine, tonics, and gynecology.

Qin Yufeng (right), Dong'e Ejiao chairman, at the "Jiuzhao ejiao" ceremony, on Dec 21. [Photo by Ju Chuanjiang/chinadaily.com.cn]

The Chinese classic I Ching, or Book of Changes, says, "Winter is the best time for health preservation with tonics," and the Chinese have a tradition of eating ejiao in winter, especially in Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. According to the tradition of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), the company held a launch ceremony for the production of the "Jiuzhao ejiao" on the day of the winter solstice. Qin Yufeng, Dong'e Ejiao's chairman, took a team to get the necessary well water in Dong'e county along with branches and leaves of the mulberry tree for the fire to make the ejiao tonic, a labor-intensive process that involves 99 steps and various instruments made of gold and silver.

Auction at Dong'e Ejiao Co, of 40-yr-old ejiao, which brought 400,000 yuan, on Dec 21. [Photo by Wang Qian/chinadaily.com.cn]

The county's well water has been shown to be rich in microelements and minerals that make the ejiao more effective and genuine, with the proper quality and Qin explaining to China Daily that Dong'e has used more authentic methods since 2007 to ensure this, then concluding, "Though ejiao needs innovation in its basic skills to go overseas, it is bound to gear up home and abroad."

Traditional Chinese medicine experts at the ejiao forum, in Shandong, on Dec 21. [Photo by Wang Qian/chinadaily.com.cn]

To keep its large percentage of this growing industry, the company keeps improving its traditional methods through science and technology, and announced its latest product, "Zhenyan small-molecule ejiao", which is absorbed quickly and is good for women's health, on Nov 28. It has patents on this product in China, Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea.