Edible Bird Nest Case Study

Edible Bird Nest as Health Products
Edible bird nests (EBN) has been consumed by the Chinese for hundreds of years. They have been regard highly due to their rarity and also health benefits. They have been used as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as the Chinese believe that consuming EBN can provide many health benefits and cure diseases. A lot of research has found that EBN indeed has many benefits to a person’s health.
One of the uses of edible bird nest is as a beauty products and cosmetics. The Chinese believed that EBN can maintain youthfulness. According to Kong’s study (as cited in Guo et al., 2006) shows that EBN contains avian epidermal growth factor (EGF) responsible for cell and tissue repair in human. EGF plays the main role in

The Chinese has long believes that EBN can cure your respiratory tract infection and soothed the lung. They also believe that EBN can cure tuberculosis, cough, relieving asthma symptoms, coughing blood and common weakness in bronchial illnesses. The use of EBN to treat respiratory illness has been mention in the book of ‘ben cao cong xin’ from 1759 (“Major Health Benefits of Edible Bird’s Nests-Kang Sheng Agriculture,” n.d.). Moreover, as stated by Kong and Kwan, (as cited in Bird’s Nest: Caviar of the East, n.d.) bird’s nest does have obvious healing effects to post-stage tuberculosis”.
Another health benefit of edible bird nest is improving lungs function. A good quality one will give to the restoration of lungs function. A heavy smoker will benefit most from consuming EBN because it will improve immunity against infections. Other than that, it will soothes mouth and throat from irritation caused by nicotine and tar from the cigarette as well as removing those chemical from the lungs (Bird’s Nest: Caviar of the East, n.d.). An asthmatic person who consumes EBN frequently will have smoother breathing and better asthma

Sialic acid or N-acetylneuraminic acid is a great mediator of immune system. Sialic acid will affects the flow of mucus and in turn will repels pathogen that entering the body (Aswir & Wan Nazaimoon, 2011, 1123). “Sialic acid residues of many glycoconjugates are involved in biologically important ligand-receptor interactions such as specific cell-to-cell, pathogen-to-cell, or drug-to-cell interactions” (Guo, 2006). Other than that, according to Kong’s study (as cited in Guo, 2006) EBN also helps epidermal cell proliferation and repair and immune system stimulation. All this properties in EBN will help to improves one’s immune