Gui Ban Jiao (Tortoise Shell Gelatin)

Official Gui Jia Jiao (龟甲胶), commonly called Gui Ban Jiao (龟板胶), is the solid glue made by decocting and concentrating tortoise shell. The pharmacopoeial name is Testudinis Carapaxis et Plastri Colla. The source is the carapace and plastron of Chinemys reevesii. Gui Jia is the shell: it is decocted first and also subdues yang. E Jiao is donkey-hide glue: sweet and neutral, supplements Blood, nourishes yin, moistens dryness and stops bleeding. Lu Jiao Jiao is sweet-salty and warm: warms and supplements the Liver and Kidney, boosts essence and nourishes Blood. Write Gui Jia Jiao or Gui Ban Jiao. Use caution in Spleen-Stomach vacuity cold.

According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, tortoise-shell glue is salty, sweet and cool, enters the Liver, Kidney and Heart channels, and acts to nourish yin, nourish Blood and stop bleeding. It is used for yin-vacuity tidal fever, steaming-bone night sweats, sore weak waist and knees, Blood-vacuity sallow complexion, and flooding, spotting and vaginal discharge. Salty-sweet, cool and cloying, it suits insufficiency of yin and Blood—not Spleen-Stomach vacuity cold, poor appetite or loose stool.

The glue is boiled from the shell. Nourishing yin, nourishing Blood and stopping bleeding are more concentrated, and it must be melted. The shell is decocted first and also nourishes yin, subdues yang, boosts the Kidney and strengthens bone. Donkey-hide glue leans to supplementing Blood, moistening the Lung and stopping bleeding; it cannot replace nourishing the Kidney and subduing yang by equal weight. Commercial tortoise jelly is not equal-weight pieces.