Healing Powers of Birds' Nest Soup Remain Mysterious.

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Healing Powers of Birds' Nest Soup
Remain Mysterious
Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 11 July 2012 Time: 03:09 PM ET

 At as much as $4,500 per pound,
edible birds' nests are among the
most expensive foods on the planet.
Made from the saliva of cave-dwelling
birds called swiftlets, the nests are
dangerous to harvest, laborious to
prepare and have, according to
traditional Chinese medicine , a long
list of health benefits.
Traditionally consumed in soup,
edible birds' nests are now being
turned into food and drink additives
as well as put into cosmetics, say two
Chinese researchers who have
assessed just what is known about
the nutritional and medicinal
properties of this expensive, and to
Westerners, strange-sounding health
food.
Science cannot yet explain the healing
powers attributed to the soup, they
conclude. Birds' nests "bioactivities
and medicinal value are still open to
question as there (is) not much
scientific research on the medicinal
properties," Fucui Ma and Daicheng
Liu of Shandong Normal University in
China write in a review article to be
published in the October issue of the
journal Food Research International. .
Swiftlets live in limestone caves
around the Indian Ocean, in South
and South East Asia, North Australia
and the Pacific Islands. Males primarily
build the nests, attaching them to the
vertical walls of the caves. Removing
them can be dangerous and
painstaking work, and, depending on
the type of nest, it can take one
person eight hours to clean 10 nests,
the researchers write.

For possibly 1,200 years, the Chinese
have prepared and eaten the nests as
a soup. The nests are considered to
have a high nutritional and medicinal
value, believed to have everything
from anti-aging and anti-cancer
properties to the ability to improve
concentration and raise libido.
Protein is the most abundant
constituent of the nests, which contain all of the essential amino acids, the building blocks out of which proteins are made. They also contain six hormones, including testosterone and estradiol, the researchers write. The nests also contain carbohydrates, ash and a small quantity of lipids (naturally occurring molecules that include fats). Previous research has indicated that the nests contain substances that can stimulate cell division and growth, enhance tissue growth and regeneration, and that it can inhibit influenza infections.

But not everyone reacts well to them Birds’ nests are known to cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.

Little research has been carried out
on their biological function so far, and
more is needed to better understand
the qualities attributed to them, they
conclude.

http://www.livescience.com/21534-edible-birds-nests-health.html