Nutrient-rich Black Chicken

In China, there’s a special species of fowl known as the black or black-bone chicken (Gallus domesticus) of the Phasianidae family. Known as the Silkie Bantam in the US, the black chicken is short, with a small head and short neck. It originated in Taihe County, east of Wushan mountain in Jiangxi province of China, where it has been raised for over 2,000 years. The species has since evolved and spread, and is now grown in many countries.

Depending on the location where the chicken is raised, the characteristics can vary from white feather-black bone, black feather-black bone, black bone-black meat, white meat-black bone, and so on. The coloring of the feathers has also diversified through breeding. Aside from the original white, it comes in black, blue, buff, gray and brown.

In the Tang Dynasty, maifengdanyao, which has black chicken as its main ingredient, was thought to be the cure-all medicine for gynecological diseases. The famous medicinal book written during the Ming Dynasty titled Compendium of Materia Medica says that Taihe Old Chicken is a tonic and nourishing food to treat women's diseases. Research conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that black chicken has outstanding nutritional and medicinal value due to the peculiar natural conditions in Wushan, especially the Wushan spring water, which contains various minerals. It is said that the original silky fowls drink spring water, eat wild grass and worms in the forest there.

For many years the people of Taihe have made many kinds of products and derived many benefited from the black chicken. They created a series of tonic liquors and nourishing foods, such as Wuji Baifen Wan (Pai Fong Wan or Bak Fong Pills), Wuji Shenjijing (refinement of black-bone chicken with ginseng and wolfberry fruit), Wuji Bujiu (black chicken tonic liquor), Wuji Mairujing (black chicken with extract of malt and milk), etc.

Black chicken is also used for treatment of hectic fever, diabetes, lingering diarrhea due to hypofunction of the spleen, dysentery, metrorrhagia (profuse uterine bleeding especially between menstrual periods) and leukorrhagia (whitish discharge from the vagina resulting from inflammation or congestion of the mucous membrane). It can also be used for the treatment of asthenic disease, soreness of waist, leg pain, etc.