Shui Zhi 水蛭, Dried Hirudin, Medicinal Leeches, Hirudo Medicinalis
Buy Shui Zhi 水蛭, Dried Hirudin, Medicinal Leeches, Hirudo Medicinalis Online Direct From China. Hirudin is a compound made by medicinal leeches that interferes with the body’s ability to form blood clots. Leeches have been used in medicine for centuries. Currently, they are used for various conditions that benefit from the removal of blood clots. Contact Us To Buy More Traditional Chinese Medicine Herbal Tea (中藥材 TCM yao cai) at the best price online Direct From China Herbal Tea Supplier.
Product Description:
- Product Name: Dried Hirudin
- Latin Name: Hirudo
- Common Name: Leeches
- Chinese Name: shui zhi 水蛭
- Origin: Guangxi Province,China
- Package: Bag
- Storage: Keep in cool, dry and no light place
Read More Info. About It (In English):
Hirudin is a compound made by medicinal leeches that interferes with the body’s ability to form blood clots. Leeches have been used in medicine for centuries. Currently, they are used for various conditions that benefit from the removal of blood clots. Such anticoagulation involves the inhibition of the protein thrombin, which catalyzes blood clot formation. The use of live leeches risks the introduction of bacteria into the wound, and hirudin is generally used by itself to prevent blood from clotting.
Medicinal leeches, Hirudo medicinalis, produce a number of compounds in their salivary glands that help with the process of bloodletting from their hosts, known as hirudotherapy. They produce anesthetics, so the host will be less likely to notice as the leech attaches to them. Also in the mixture are compounds that keep the blood from clotting, so it will flow more freely into the leech. The blood continues to remain unclotted, even after the leech has detached. There are some disadvantages to using live leeches for anticoagulation, since they can introduce bacteria into the wound.
The compound in the saliva that is the most specific for anticoagulation is the peptide hirudin. This is a chain of 65 amino acids, first discovered in 1884. It was not until 1976 that the structure was determined. Leeches only have a small amount of this compound in their saliva, and there are several different forms of hirudin mixed together. Most of the pure compound used medically is derived from genetically engineered peptide.
Blood clotting involves the conversion of soluble protein called fibrinogen to the insoluble mesh fibrin. This reaction is catalyzed by an enzyme called thrombin, which is a protease and can cleave other proteins. When thrombin is inactivated, fibrin does not form and the blood no longer clots.
There are different types of thrombin. Hirudin inactivates only the type of thrombin that is the most specific for fibrinogen, and therefore it is the most potent compound that inhibits thrombin. It is even more specific than the body’s own thrombin inhibitor, antithrombin III.
Conditions that benefit from anticoagulation treatment include varicose veins and genetic disorders in which the blood coagulates too much. Hirudin can act on thrombin that has formed a mesh and become a clot. The condition of having such clots inside blood vessels is known as thrombosis. This peptide can even act on complexed thrombin, and this ability gives it an advantage over the drug heparin, also used as an anticoagulant.
Read More Info. About It (In Chinese 中文介绍):
水蛭概述(破血 逐瘀 通经)
别名 蚂蝗蜞、黄蜞、水麻贴、沙塔干、肉钻子、蚂蟥、蚂蝗、清水蚂蝗、油炸蚂蝗、炒蚂蝗、矾水蛭
为医蛭科蚂蟥属动物蚂蟥、柳叶蚂蟥和水蛭的干燥全体，水蛭的主要成分是蛋白质、多肽、微量元和脂肪酸素等。
水蛭各家论述
据《本经》记载：“主逐恶血、瘀血、月闭，破血瘕积聚，无子利水道。”
水蛭性状
【性味】 味咸，苦，性平，有毒。
【归经】 归肝经
呈扁长圆柱形，腹面稍高，体多弯曲扭转，通常用线穿起，多数密集成团，全体黑棕色。质脆，断面不平坦，无光泽。气微腥。