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Other non-vegan TCM ingredients

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) uses animal-derived materials alongside herbs, among them donkey-hide gelatin (e jiao), deer antler and deer-horn gelatin, tortoise-shell gelatin, scorpion (quanxie) and animal bile, and a 2015 count found animal-derived medicines and the proprietary medicines made from them made up about a fifth of the medicines in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Some Chinese herbal products have also been found to contain undeclared animal material. Several animal ingredients carry conservation and legal facts: China banned trade in rhino horn and tiger bone in 1993, removed pangolins from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia in 2020, and bear bile has been taken from farmed bears, while demand for e jiao drives a global donkey-skin trade. These are documentary and regulatory facts rather than trial outcomes, so none is graded high.

  • Vegan

Evidence retrieved up to

What the research shows

Animal-derived medicines make up a substantial share of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia: a 2015 count found 51 raw animal-derived medicines, 61 processed products and 365 proprietary medicines containing them, together 22.0% of the 2,165 Chinese medicines listed, and the 2025 edition includes 34 preparations containing scorpion.

Moderate certaintyFurther research may change the size of the effect.
No known concerns at usual amountsUnclear

Who this is about

consumers of traditional Chinese medicine products

Practical note

The 22.0% figure is a documentary count from one study's introduction and refers to the pharmacopoeia edition current in 2015; the share in later editions was not found in a fetched source.

Vegan note

Because animal-derived medicines also appear inside proprietary multi-ingredient products, an ingredient list rather than the product name is needed to tell whether a TCM product is plant-only.

Sources

Some Chinese herbal products have been found to contain undeclared animal material, so a product sold as herbal is not reliably free of animal ingredients.

Low certaintyFurther research is likely to change this.
Take care: see the safety noteRisk

Who this is about

consumers of Chinese herbal products

Practical note

The source reports that such contamination has been found but gives no prevalence figure.

Vegan note

Undeclared animal material cannot be screened out by reading the label alone.

Safety note

The same NCCIH page reports contamination of some Chinese herbal products with undeclared drugs, heavy metals, pesticides, sulfites or incorrect herbs.

Sources

Rhinoceros and tiger are listed in CITES Appendix I, and in 1993 China banned trade in rhino horn and tiger bone, abolished their medical standards and prohibited pharmaceuticals made from them, although a 1997 TRAFFIC investigation still found rhino horn, tiger bone and their medicinal derivatives available.

Moderate certaintyFurther research may change the size of the effect.
Take care: see the safety noteUnclear

Who this is about

consumers of traditional Chinese medicine products

Practical note

The legal facts come from the State Council circular's record; the availability finding is from a 1997 investigation and may not describe the market today.

Safety note

Trade in these products is illegal under the 1993 ban, and the TRAFFIC record notes the maximum penalty for illicit trade in China was death.

Sources

Pangolin scales have been used in TCM, but pangolins were removed from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia in May 2020 and raised to China's highest (Class I) level of wildlife protection in June 2020, although medicinal-use permits for pangolin scales had not been entirely abolished.

Moderate certaintyFurther research may change the size of the effect.
Take care: see the safety noteUnclear

Who this is about

consumers of traditional Chinese medicine products

Safety note

Trade in pangolin products is subject to strict legal control in China.

Sources

Some animal ingredients in TCM depend on contested sourcing: bear bile has been extracted from living farmed bears in China since the 1980s, with five of the eight bear species listed in CITES Appendix I, and demand for e jiao drives a global donkey-skin trade reported to have depleted some local donkey populations.

Low certaintyFurther research is likely to change this.
No known concerns at usual amountsUnclear

Who this is about

consumers of traditional Chinese medicine products

Practical note

Both sources are narrative reviews, one written from an animal-welfare perspective; the bear figures date from 2009.

Vegan note

Farmed bear bile has been sold as powder, capsules, ointments, tablets, tinctures, wines, eye drops and bile tea, and e jiao is a gelatin made from donkey skin, so both can appear in products that do not look like animal products.

Sources

What the tradition holds

TCM uses animal-derived materials alongside herbs, including donkey-hide gelatin (e jiao, Asini Corii Colla), deer antler and deer-horn gelatin (lu jiao jiao), tortoise-shell gelatin (gui jia jiao), processed scorpion (quanxie, Scorpio) and bear or snake bile, and some TCM textbooks have recommended formulas with tiger bone or rhino horn.

Take care: see the safety noteUnclear

Who this is about

adults who use traditional Chinese medicine products

The tradition's frame

TCM

In TCM, animal tissues are usually combined with herbs in a formula and their use is justified by TCM's own principles; gelatins boiled from skin, horn or shell are valued as tonics.

Vegan note

These ingredients are animal-derived and may appear under Chinese (pinyin) names or Latin pharmaceutical names such as Asini Corii Colla, Cervi Cornus Colla, Testudinis Carapacis et Plastri Colla or Scorpio rather than as the animal's common name.

Safety note

A review of scorpion in Chinese medicine reports that its active ingredients can cause neurotoxicity and autonomic dysfunction in overdose. An older review notes that little research has tested the claimed clinical efficacy of TCM animal products.

Sources