About Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible Bird’s Nest is considered a delicacy. It is expensive to produce.

Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible Bird’s Nest soup is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The Chinese name for Edible Bird’s Nest soup, yàn wo, translates literally as “swallow’s nest”. This soup has been consumed in China for over 1000 years. According to Yun-Cheung Kong, a professor of biochemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, swiftlet nests were first traded in China during the T’ang Dynasty (618907 A.D.). Sometime between the years 1368 and 1644, Admiral Cheng introduced foreign nests to the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty. It is believed that even at this point in time, domestic supplies of the nests had been largely depleted which created high import demand. Edible Bird’s Nest are among the most expensive products consumed by human. The material is also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and in Traditional Vietnamese Medicine.
The nests are made by a relatively small number of species of swiftlet, namely cave swifts, which have a unique chemical texture to the saliva they use to make their nests. The soup and a mostly clear gelatin served in small jars is now very popular throughout Asia, perhaps because of its reputation as an aphrodisiac and having traditional health enhancing qualities. Based on recent research, it appears that this claim of health benefits is not a myth but based on real fact. According to a recent medical research reported by Hong Kong Chinese University, the cell division enzyme and hormone of Edible Bird’s Nest can promote reproduction and regeneration of human cells. It also helps promote one’s immune system and enhances body metabolism.

About Edible Bird’s Nest

Harvesting Edible Bird’s Nest

Swiftlets (collocaliini) are tiny insectivorous birds that are distributed from the Indian Ocean, through Southeast Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia and North Australia to the Pacific. The small birds live insects as its diet; they start hunting for food starting from daybreak until sunset and catch these insects on the wings. Amongst various species of swiftlets in the genus of Collocalia, only the nests of four species mostly spread throughout Southeast Asian region have commercial value because of human consumption. They are Collocalia fuciphaga, Collocalia germanis, Collocalia maxima and Collocalia unicolor. Collocalia species are relatively small and average 6.5g in weight, and have glossy plumage. Each of these species produces nests with salivary glue as a cementing substance, while some incorporates other materials such as vegetation or feathers. It takes the bird about 20-35 days to finish the nest. The nests take the shape of a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. The nests which are composed of interwoven strands of salivary laminae cement have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. The Edible Bird’s Nest (➩ぽ in Chinese) made up of pure salivary glue are much more expensive than those incorporating other materials which are considered of lesser value.
According to reports, the most heavily harvested nests are from the Edible-nest Swiftlet or White-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the Black-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus). The white nests and the “red blood” nests are supposedly rich in nutrients which are traditionally believed to provide health benefits, such as aiding digestion, raising libido, improving the voice, alleviating asthma, improving focus, and an overall benefit to the immune system.

The Business of Producing and Bringing to Market Edible Bird’s Nests

China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are the largest importers of these Edible Bird’s Nest. In Hong Kong a bowl of Edible Bird’s Nest Soup would cost between $30 USD and $100 USD. A kilogram of white nest can cost up to $2,000 USD, and a kilogram of “red blood” nest can cost up to $10,000 USD. The white nests are commonly treated with a red pigment and methods have been developed to determine an adulterated or altered nest from the original. The nests were formerly harvested from caves, principally the enormous limestone caves at Gomantong and Niah in Borneo. With the escalation in demand these sources have been supplanted since the late 1990s by purpose-built nesting houses, usually reinforced concrete structures either in the form of shop houses, theatres and so forth.
These nesting houses are normally found in urban areas adjoining the sea, since the birds have a propensity to flock in such places. This industry has transformed many towns in the Indonesian Province of North Sumatra as well as limited areas in such as Vietnam, Thailand and the Palawan area of the Philippines.
Edible Bird’s Nest are harvested in an ecologically sustainable way. The birds are nurtured and the nests are never removed while the eggs or small birds are present. The nests are collected from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand and elsewhere else and mostly exported to Hong Kong, which has become the centre of the world trade; although most of the final consumers are from mainland China. In Indonesia, the importance of this trade has become very large. It has been estimated that the products now account for 0.5% of the Indonesian GDP, equivalent to about a quarter of the country’s fishing industry. Health Benefits of Edible Bird’s Nests
The medicinal use of Edible Bird’s Nest can be traced back to the 17th century but maybe even earlier. In Hong Kong and in Chinese diaspora locations throughout the world, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is often used to treat diseases and enhance health. It is believed that TCM herbs have wideranging effects for enhancing health, lowering risk of diseases and promoting life span. Being one of the TCMs, Edible Bird’s Nest is believed to have health enhancing effects such as antiaging, growth promoting and immuno-enhancing properties. However, unlike other traditional medicine materials Edible Bird’s Nest is different from most of the TCMs. It is unique in that it is not only a medicine to make people healthy but also a pleasant food to be consumed and enjoyed.
Traditionally, it is double boiled with rock sugar to make a delicacy known as “Edible Bird’s Nest soup”. The gelatin drink that is served in small glass bottles also is processed with rock sugar and has a slightly sweet taste.
Although the size of Collocalia bird is small, the market generated by it is quite large and growing at double digit rates. Malaysia is the world’s third largest supplier of Edible Bird’s Nest after Thailand and Indonesia, contributing 10 percent of the 210 tonnes, worth up to $4 billion US dollars and consumed annually by top buyers in China and Taiwan. The size and importance of this market is huge for all of these countries. For example, today there are 40,000 swallow houses in Malaysia with some 8,000 people taking part in swallow farming activities. Also according to the Malaysian Federation of Edible Bird’s Nest Merchants Association Malaysia’s annual production of Edible Bird’s Nests had reached 1 billion ringgit (290 million U.S. dollars) in value and was expected to hit 5 billion ringgit (1.47 billion U.S. dollars) in another five years. In Vietnam, many of the Edible Bird’s Nest companies earn millions of US dollars in sales of their products which have a good reputation both domestically and internationally.
Why is Hong Kong the leading consumer of Edible Bird’s Nest? t may be due to the fact that people in Hong Kong are increasingly concerned about their health and the status of TCM has risen after a series of government policies on TCM. Moreover, the dual nature of Edible Bird’s Nest both as medicine and/or food plays a role in centrally linking cultural pastime in Hong Kong. In the past, people could only buy dried Edible Bird’s Nest and render them in a fairly time consuming process. This has changed and currently a large variety of Edible Bird’s Nest related products have emerged in the market. These products are mostly ready to serve products with no cooking process is required. Most of these products are still in the traditional form which is the soup but packaged as instant Edible Bird’s Nest in different concentrations. Some instant Edible Bird’s Nest may also be supplemented with other TCMs.
Apart from the traditional form, there is a trend of using Edible Bird’s Nest extract as one of the chief ingredients of the products. These products focus mainly on the medicinal use of Edible Bird’s Nest. However, some of them may exaggerate the evidence of therapeutic use of Edible Bird’s Nest. For the limited supply and high price of Edible Bird’s Nest, it is not uncommon to hear reports of fake Edible Bird’s Nest in the market. The imitation substitute commonly used is the edible plant-exude, gum karaya or sterculia. Recently, there are reports of fake Edible Bird’s Nest made from fish skin, mushroom or algae in China. Because of these reports, there are increasing concerns on authenticating the genuineness of Edible Bird’s Nest.

Nutritional Content and Medicinal Use of Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible Bird’s Nest contains mainly amino acids, carbohydrates and mineral salts. The major ingredients of Edible Bird’s Nest are glycoproteins and sialic acid (9%) is the major carbohydrate. It was found that exogenous source of sialic acid may contribute to neurological and intellectual advantages in infants. However, the nutritional and biological mechanisms of sialic acid in human body are still being studied. The other major carbohydrates include 7.2% galactosamine, 5.3% glucosamine, 16.9% galactose and 0.7% fructose.
Amino acids and mineral salts are also important components in Edible Bird’s Nest. The three non-essential amino acids (aspartic acid, glutamic acid, praline) and two essential amino acids (threonine and valine) helps facilitate normal body functions such as cell repair and promote immunity. Edible Bird’s Nest is rich in mineral salts such as sodium and calcium. It is because the source of Edible Bird’s Nest is derived from the saliva of Collocalia which mainly inhabits limestone caves. Not only that, it also has low levels of magnesium, zinc, manganese and iron.
In spite of the long history of using Edible Bird’s Nest for medicinal purposes, there is not much scientific research related to the therapeutic use of Edible Bird’s Nest. The earliest recent scientific evidence was given by Ng et al. (1986) in Hong Kong. Edible Bird’s Nest aqueous extract was found in his studies to potentiate mitogenic response of human peripheral blood monocytes to stimulation with proliferative agents, Concanavalin A and Phytohemagglutinin A. The results of this research suggested that Edible Bird’s Nest might possess immune enhancing effect by aiding cell division of immune cells.
One year later, scientific evidence was published by Kong et al. This study demonstrated an epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like activity in aqueous extract of Edible Bird’s Nest that stimulated the DNA synthesis in 3T3 fibroblast in a dose dependent manner in vitro. EGF is a 6,000 Da polypeptide hormone produced by glands of the gastrointestinal tract, namely the salivary and Brunner’s glands. It appears to play a crucial role in major normal cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation and development. It may offer a rationale for the medicinal use of Edible Bird’s Nest in ageing resistance. Since the receptor for EGF is highly expressed in a number of solid tumours, including breast, head-and-neck, non-small-cell lung, renal, ovarian and colon cancer, people are worried about a possibility in inducing tumour progression and resistant to chemotherapy/radiation treatment in tumour cells. In conclusion, it is suggested that cancer patients should avoid Edible Bird’s Nest. In fact, there is no evidence supporting this suggestion. Researchers have evaluated the effects of aqueous extract of Edible Bird’s Nest on the viability on two human cancer cell lines, human breast cancer MCF-7 (ATCC HTB-22) and human liver cancer HepG2 (ATCC HB-8065). There was no observable effect on cell viability when the result is compared with the control group (unpublished data).
In 1994, a research team in China evaluated the pharmacological effects of Edible Bird’s Nest and pearl powder containing formulation. The formulation was demonstrated to have immuno enhancing effects by elevating DNA synthesis of T-lymphocytes and circulating immunoglobulin M content in mice. In addition, the formulation also showed ageing retardation by increasing the level of superoxide dimutase. However, the study did not explore whether the effects came from either Edible Bird’s Nest, pearl powder or both.

Further Studies on Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible Bird’s Nest has been used for hundreds or probably thousands of years. Despite this, scientific evidence for its efficacy is still limited. The claimed health benefits such as resisting aging and improving immunity of Edible Bird’s Nest is yet to be conclusively proven.
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