06/27/2012

Shanghai After Wang Lan delivered, she brought home a baby girl and her placenta, which she plans to eat in a soup adopting an age-old practice in Chinese traditional medicine.

The health-giving qualities of placenta are currently creating a buzz in Western countries, where some believe it can help ward off postnatal depression, improve breast milk supply and boost energy levels.

But placentophagy the practice of eating ones placenta after birth is relatively common in China, where it is thought to have anti-aging properties, and dates back more than 2,000 years.

It is in the refrigerator now and I am waiting for my mother to come and cook it to eat. After cleaning, it can be stewed for soup, without that fishy smell, Wang said, adding she believed it would help her recover from delivery.

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of a unified China, is said to have designated placenta as having health properties some 2,200 years ago, and during Chinas last dynasty, the dowager empress Cixi was said to have eaten it to stay young.

A classic medical text from the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) said placenta which lines the uterus and is key to the survival of the fetus was heavily nutritious and if taken for the longer term... longevity will be achieved.

Chinas state media says the practice of eating placenta has re-emerged over the past decade. One maternity hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing reported that about 10 percent of new parents took their placenta after childbirth.

Internet postings swap recipes on how to prepare placenta. One popular health Web site suggests soup, dumplings, meat balls or mixing it with other kinds of traditional Chinese medicine.

While trade in the organs has been banned since 2005, pills containing placentas ground into powder are legally available in Chinese pharmacies indicating unwanted placenta is somehow making its way to drug companies.

Read more from the original source:
Eating placenta, an age-old practice in China