BEIJING, Jun 3: Hundreds of Chinese
farms are rearing cockroaches to cure
stomach diseases and treat compost
waste, according to a media report.
Three billion cockroaches are eating
15 tonnes of kitchen waste each day to
solve the long-time environmental problem
of mountains of discarded food, according
to the Hong Kong-based South
China Morning Post.
According to Liu Yusheng, president
of Shandong Insect Industry Association
and an entomology professor at Shandong
Agricultural University, cockroaches
can cure oral and peptic ulcers, skin
burns and wounds, and even prevent
stomach cancer.
The number of cockroach farmers in
Shandong alone has tripled to about 400
in the past three years, Liu said.
“There have been huge developments
in cockroach breeding and research
in the past few years,” he said.
In the southwestern city of Xichang
in Sichuan province, a two-storey building
breeding six billion cockroaches to
be used in ulcer-curing drugs.
A centralised system keeps temperatures
in the breeding rooms at 28 and
33 degrees Celsius (82 to 91 Fahrenheit),
and manages conditions including
the humidity, air flow, cleanliness and
pressure. Upstairs, a set of giant shiny
metal tanks connected to the breeding
rooms by pipes kill 6 tonnes (6.6 short
tons) of cockroaches at a time with heat
and extracts the essence from them.
Workers operating in aseptic rooms
produce over 600,000 bottles of the healing
potion each day, the report said.
“The effectiveness of cockroaches has
been tested by the bodies of our ancestors
and proven by lab experiments,”
Geng Funeng, chairman of Gooddoctor
Pharmaceutical Group, who owns such
a facility, said. Cockroaches and other
insects including scorpions and centipedes
have been ingredients in traditional
Chinese medicine for thousands
of years called Kangfuxin Ye, Geng said.
The potion has been made entirely
from cockroaches. It can reportedly cure
oral and peptic ulcers, skin burns and
wounds, and even prevent stomach cancer.
Patients can drink the potion to cure
ulcers, and apply it externally to skin
wounds, Geng was quoted as saying by
the report. – PTI
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