Dit da jow

Dit da jow
Chinese 跌打酒
Cantonese Jyutping dit3 daa2 zau2
Literal meaning fall hit wine

Dit Da Jow is a popular Chinese liniment sold to heal external damage such as bruises or sore muscles. There are several different recipes for Dit Da Jow, most of which are considered to be a "secret formula" passed down through oral and written history of Traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, and modern Western science. Although Chinese tradition traces the origins of Chinese medicine to the divine figures Shennong and the Yellow Emperor, who are said to have lived in the early 3rd millennium BCE, the earliest available historical records of Chinese medicine are medical texts dating from the Han Dynasty via several Chinese materia medica.

Dit Da Jow is an analgesic liniment traditionally preferred by martial artists. Often a martial arts master blends his unique mixture of many aromatic herbs such as myrrh and ginseng, which are combined to stimulate circulation, reduce pain and swelling, and improve healing of injuries and wounds.[1] The tradition became known as "hit medicine".

Today Dit Da Jow can be bought online and through martial arts catalogues or it can be directly obtained from a Chinese apothecary or master. Dit Da Jow is primarily used by martial artists to aid the healing of Iron Palm training.

Dit Da Jow is made from herbs put in a glass or polyethylene terephthalate plastic jar and mixed with an alcohol like vodka or gin. Centuries ago, Dit Da Jow was made by combining the herbs in a clay vessel and adding rice wine, then burying the vessel in the ground for months or even years; it was believed that the longer the herbs sat in the alcohol, the stronger the Dit Da Jow became. This has been tested by Wing Chun Illustrated Magazine, which asked Jere Boudell, a professor of biology at Clayton State University, to determine the bioactive ingredients. The results showing that aged solutions had more bioactivity were published in Wing Chun Illustrated [2] as well as at a conference which can be viewed on YouTube.[3]

Typical ingredients

Many recipes are available; the ingredients listed here are merely examples. The best mixture depends on many factors, including the particular intended use. In particular, there are "toxic" and "non-toxic" recipes—the former must not be used on open wounds or ingested.

The herbs and other ingredients are typically coarse-ground, then steeped in alcohol (vodka or rice wine is commonly suggested), sometimes with heat, and then aged. Many vendors offer "herb packs" from which Dit Da Jow can be prepared, or pre-made Dit Da Jow mixtures for particular uses.

Traditional ingredients

Traditional recipes vary greatly; some of the many possible ingredients are:[4][5][6]

Westernized recipe ingredients

Some recipes instead use ingredients more readily available in the West. These are obviously non-traditional, and some practitioners of TCM would not consider such recipes "true" Dit Da Jow. A Westernized recipe might include ingredients such as:

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.