← The ApothecaryEquidaehide (boiled down to gelatin, ejiao)Fact-checked 24 October 2026

EvidenceLimited evidence

SafetyUse with caution

PregnancyInsufficient data

Actions

tonic

What the regulators say

Sustainability and welfare: The Donkey Sanctuary estimated (2019) that the ejiao industry sources about 1.8 million hides a year within China and 3–3.5 million more through a global trade, including illegal slaughter of 650,000–1,000,000 donkeys a year in Nigeria and legal slaughter of about 390,000 a year in Kenya and 208,000 in Brazil. Donkeys are rarely bred at industrial scale outside China, so supply comes from working and feral animals that some 600 million people in low- and middle-income countries depend on for transport and water; theft has been widespread in Kenya. By 2019, 18 countries had acted to ban donkey exports (including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal), and Kenya banned slaughter and export in 2020. Brazil's donkey population fell 37% (1.31 million in 1994 to 822,000 in 2018), and more than half of China's 24 indigenous donkey breeds are now classed as endangered to some degree. Quality is variable and adulteration with horse, mule, cattle or pig hide is documented. Donkey products are not halal.

Donkey

Equus asinus

Also calledEjiao / ē jiāo (Chinese, the hide gelatin) · Asini Corii Colla / Colla corii asini (pharmacopoeial Latin) · Donkey-hide gelatin

Ejiao is a gelatin boiled from donkey hide, a 'blood-nourishing' tonic of Chinese medicine recorded since the Shennong Bencao Jing. Once reserved for China's elite, it is now a mass-market product, and demand for millions of hides a year has driven donkey theft, slaughter and population declines in Africa, Latin America and China itself. Clinical evidence is a single industry-affiliated trial.

What it is used for

Anaemia
Limited
In one double-blind trial at a Shanghai hospital, 210 participants with 'blood deficiency syndrome' (a TCM diagnosis related to but not the same as anaemia; severe anaemia was excluded) took 6 g ejiao a day or placebo for 8 weeks. Dizziness and quality-of-life scores improved, and red-cell counts and haematocrit fell less than on placebo. Two authors worked for the main ejiao manufacturer, Dong-E-E-Jiao Co.¹
Osteoporosis and bone health
Limited
A 2025 scoping review found bone-protective effects of ejiao mainly in animal and cell studies, with a few clinical studies of multi-ingredient ejiao formulas; no placebo-controlled trials.⁶
Bleeding
Traditional
In Chinese medicine ejiao was prescribed primarily to replace lost blood; no trials of this use were found.^2,3
Fertility
Traditional
Modern marketing extends it to infertility, miscarriage, menstrual irregularity, ageing and libido; these uses are not supported by clinical trials.²

How it is prepared

dry extract / capsule

Ejiao powder in capsules, as used in the clinical trial; it is also made into pastes and oral liquids combined with other herbs.

Zhang et al. 2021 trial: 6 g ejiao daily for 8 weeks.

Anaemia

Amounts are as recorded by the named source, not a recommendation.

Safety

Pregnancy: Insufficient data
Breastfeeding: Insufficient data

Do not use if

Religious or ethical objection to donkey products (forbidden for Muslims)

Side effects

In the one trial: mouth ulcers ('anabrosis') and facial acne were the commonest adverse events, with no moderate or severe events and no changes in liver or kidney tests

Toxicity

No toxicity signal in the 8-week trial. The main risks are product authenticity (other animals' hides substituted) and the welfare and livelihood harms of the hide trade.

In the healing traditions

Traditional Chinese Medicine
Ejiao (阿胶)
A blood-nourishing tonic, especially for women, also used to improve immune response, metabolic balance and for gynaecological disorders; often combined with other herbs. Dong'e County in Shandong is called the birthplace of ejiao.
Shennong Bencao Jing (c. 200 BCE–200 CE); Compendium of Materia Medica (Ming dynasty, 1593)

Active compounds

collagen type I (COL1A1, COL1A2) and its peptides: main components of the gelatin; species-specific peptides are used to tell genuine donkey gelatin from horse, mule, cattle or pig hide gelatin

History

Ejiao is first recorded in the Shennong Bencao Jing and was later included in the Ming-dynasty Compendium of Materia Medica (1593). For most of its history it was a luxury of China's elite; mass marketing in recent decades, led by Dong-E-E-Jiao Co., which founded an ejiao trade association in 2015, turned it into a mass product and set off a global trade in donkey skins as China's own donkey population fell.

Sources

Reference, not prescription. Nothing here is medical advice. Herbs can interact with medicines and be dangerous in pregnancy; tell your doctor or pharmacist about anything you take.