Pilose antler, a traditional TCM, is the unossifying young pilose antler of male Cervus nip port Temminck or Cervus elaphus Linnaeus. Pilose antler is sawed in summer and autumn and dried after processing. Pilose antler tastes sweet and is warm in nature, with the efficacy of strengthening kidney-yang, benefiting essence and blood, strengthening the bones and muscles, regulating thoroughfare and conception vessels, and expressing the toxin of sores. It is used to treat insufficiency of kidney-yang, blood and essence asthenia, impotence and spermatorrhea, cold in uterus and infertility, marked emaciation, spiritual fatigue, fear of cold, dizziness, tinnitus, deafness, lumbar spine crymodynia, weak muscles and bones, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis and leukorrhea, and lasting dorsal furuncle. According to modern research, chemical components of pilose antler mainly include the metallic elements, protein, polypeptide, growth factor, amino acids, saccharides and bioamine, etc. needed by humans.

Modern processing methods of pilose antler decoction pieces

Modern processing methods of pilose antler include CP method, Lingnan method, dairy product processing method, and Wenbang processing method. The CP method is: remove the antler hair completely, wrap the antler with cotton tape, pour in hot liquor from the hole on the section, continue to add the liquor until the antler is thoroughly wet, or pour liquor and slightly steam it, then transversely slice it, flatten the slices, and then dry them. Lingnan method is: remove the antler hair completely, wet the antler with 30℃ rice wine, wrap the antler with cotton cloth after it is completely softened, tighten it with rope, steam it for 50min, and after cooling down, remove the rope and beat the antler with mallet to make it soft, cut open the antler lengthways, put the antler parts together, bind them up into strip with antler skin, then steam them for about 30min, then repeat the binding and steaming until they become cylindrical with appropriate hardness; slice the antler, absorb water and flatten the slices, and dry them in the shade or in a low temperature. Dairy product processing method is: remove the antler hair by fire, shave the residual hair with a glass sheet, thoroughly steam it in a chamber, slice it (about 1.5~3mm thick), dip slices into milk, bake them on smokeless fire until the milk evaporates and the slice color becomes yellow, and finally dry the slices in the sun. Wenbang processing method is: remove the antler hair by fire, wipe it, wrap it with rope, continue to add hot liquor (50~55℃) from the hole on the section, put the section upwards, put absorbent cotton at the pot bottom (to prevent the hot liquor from injuring the antler tip), until the hot liquor completely penetrates deep into the interior, and repeat the above steps until the remaining liquor is all poured; cover the pot for 24h, then take out the antler for 1h baking on charcoal fire paved with hot ash with temperature of about 60℃, take it out for slicing after it is completely softened, dry them in a cool and ventilated place, place them in a winnowing fan at night, cover with gauze, flatten them with rice, separately place them in winnowing fans on the second day for drying, and this way, the pilose antler decoction pieces will be dried in 2~3 days. In fact, there are professional TCM equipment that can be used in the processing methods of pilose antler decoction pieces.

Pharmacological action of pilose antler

According to modern research, pilose antler polypeptide can promote the regeneration of the nervous system and also the early regeneration of the nerve injury. According to the experiment building a memory disorder model in mice using scopolamine hydrobromide and intervening with pilose antler, the low, medium, and high positive pilose antler polypeptide groups could significantly shorten the escape latency and escape path length of memory-impaired mice, reduced errors, reduced MDA content, and promoted high expression of GSH and SOD. Pilose antler also has good immunologic enhancement. According to an experiment, the medium to high-dose compound pilose antler polysaccharides could significantly increase the mice’s HCso, improve the delayed hypersensitivity of mice in medium-dose group and high-dose group, and also significantly improve the high-dose group mice’s carbon clearance function and abdominal macrophages’ phagocytosis. Pilose antler blood extracts could down-regulate healthy mice’s peripheral blood total T cells, weaken cellular immunity, up-regulate B cell proportion, strengthen humoral immunity, and could increase tumor-bearing mice’s Th cells, cytotoxic T cells, total T cells, and total B cell proportion, significantly reduce MDsC proportion, and delay the growth of xenograft tumor. According to research, pilose antler polypeptide’s inhibiting of tumor growth is through inhibiting osteoclast’s excessive activation and reducing bone resorption, to maintain the balance of osteogenesis and osteolysis. Furthermore, pilose antler polypeptide could significantly extend mice’s survival under normal pressure and anoxic condition, gasp time after decapitation and oxygen deficit, time of climbing pole, and time of load swimming, and could also significantly reduce the lactic acid increase in mice’s serum after swimming. An experiment also showed that pilose antler polypeptide has an apparent antifatigue ability.

Relevant industrial standardization of pilose antler

TCM standardization is a major strategy to promote the TCM cause development. The Plan for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Development during the 13^th Five-Year Plan Period of China has clearly proposed to accelerate implementation of the TCM standardization project, establish and improve a perfect TCM quality standard system, accelerate conversion of Chinese standards into international standards, and improve the standardization support ability. There are various deer-related standards in China, however, they have not covered every aspect of the industry, for example, there are no standards on processing and circulation in Chinese national and local standards, and most standards focus on breeding and testing method, lacking requirements for and control over other links of the deer industry chain.

As the deer-derived product with the highest utilization and additional value, the processing and utilization of pilose antler have been a research focus of the deer industry, however, there is no dedicated national standard for pilose antler in China, while, pilose antler-related standards account for 38% of the deer industry standards, and pilose antler-related standards account for only 10%~16% of local standards and enterprise standards. There are not many standards on pilose antler in standards at all levels, and pilose antler has not reached the scales of TCM like ginseng and Panax notoginseng no matter in terms of coverage or influence in China and the world. Therefore, there is an urgent need that the relevant standardization technical committee shall join hands with professional groups to make modern, systematic, and regulated standards for pilose antler at all levels and the evaluation system, to lay a foundation for the establishment of the deer industry standard system.

Statistics of the Quantity of Relevant (Current) Standards for Pilose Antler

References:

 [1] Zhang Lei, Wei Haijun, Chang Qunhong, Yang Fuhe, Sun Yinshi. Present Situation and Analysis of Deer Industry Standardization at Home and Abroad [J]. China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica, 2019,44(05):1064-1068.

 [2] Wang Yaping, Zhang Kaiyue, Zhang Hui, Gao Ying. Research Progress on Processing Method, Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Action of Pilose Antler [J]. Jilin Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2019,39(04):484-486.

About the author: Xiaonisha, a practitioner in food science and technology, graduated from School of Food Science and Engineering in the South China University of Technology as a Master of Food Science, and now works at a large drug R&D company in China, engaging in R&D of nutritional food.

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