Placenta

Placenta refers to human placenta. According to traditional Chinese medicine, placenta is sweet, salty and warm in nature. It enters the lung, heart and kidney meridians and has the functions of nourishing the kidney and essence, replenishing qi and nourishing blood. Modern medical research believes that placenta contains protein, sugar, calcium, vitamins, immune factors, female hormones, progesterone, steroid hormones, gonadotropin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, etc. It can promote the development of breast, uterus, vagina and testicles, and also has a promoting effect on thyroid. It is also effective for tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, anemia, etc. Grinding it into powder for oral administration or enema can prevent measles or relieve symptoms. It also has a certain effect on portal vein cirrhosis ascites and schistosomiasis in late stage cirrhosis ascites.

The efficacy and function of placenta

1. Enhance the body's resistance. Subcutaneous injection of human placenta extract can prolong the swimming time of mice; intramuscular injection of rats has a certain preventive and therapeutic effect on experimental gastric ulcers caused by reserpine, tension, and ligation of the lower part of the pylorus. Intraperitoneal injection of hydrochloric acid hydrolyzate of defatted placenta into rats has a significant inhibitory effect on liver fat deposition caused by carbon tetrachloride and ethylthiobutyric acid. Oral administration of placenta powder to mice can reduce their tuberculosis lesions, and in test tubes it can promote the growth of tuberculosis bacteria. Therefore, it is believed that its main effect is to enhance the body's resistance.

2. Anti-infection effect Placental γ-globulin contains interferon, which can be used to prevent and control viral infections. Placental γ-globulin also contains antibodies such as measles and influenza and diphtheria antitoxin, which can be used to prevent and alleviate infectious diseases such as measles. Because placental γ-globulin is a protein, it is ineffective when taken orally and must be injected.

The lysozyme contained in the placenta can prevent mice from dying from endotoxins caused by Salmonella, Salmonella typhimurium, and Shigella flexneri when injected intraperitoneally; but it has no effect on endotoxemia caused by Escherichia coli.

3. Hormone-like effects The placenta may contain chorionic gonadotropin, estrogen and progesterone, and thus has the pharmacological effects of these hormones. However, chorionic gonadotropin is a protein substance and is ineffective when taken orally, so it needs to be injected. Placental extract injected into lactating rabbits seems to promote their development and can significantly promote the development of the thymus, spleen, uterus, vagina, and mammary glands. It also has a promoting effect on the thyroid gland, testicles, etc., but has almost no effect on the pituitary gland, adrenal glands, ovaries, pancreas, liver, kidneys, etc.

4. Effect on blood coagulation The placenta contains urokinase inhibitors, which can inhibit the "activation" of urokinase on plasminogen. The decrease in fibrinolytic activity during pregnancy is related to this. It has been reported that the ratio of plasminogen activators to urokinase inhibitors in the myometrium during pregnancy is 1:3.4, while the ratio of the two in the placenta is as high as 1:1197. The human placenta contains low molecular weight coagulation factor XII (a glycoprotein), which can not only stabilize fibrin clots and promote wound healing, but also has an antihistamine effect in animal experiments. It can be used clinically to treat patients with bleeding caused by factor XII deficiency.

5. Other effects In in vitro tests, placental extracts can promote the recovery of suppressed hearts. In in vitro tests, a certain glycoprotein component in the human placenta can inhibit the synthesis of DNA in lymphocytes, but does not affect the vitality of the cells. Placental extracts can inhibit the fever caused by methamphetamine in large amounts.

Nutritional value of placenta

The composition of the placenta is relatively complex. Placental globulin products contain a variety of antibodies and have long been used for passive immunization in clinical practice. Human placenta contains interferon and macroglobulin (called tail-inhibitory factor).

It also contains components related to blood coagulation: fibrin stabilizing factors similar to coagulation factor XII, urokinase inhibitors and plasminogen activators. The hormones contained in human placenta include: gonadotropins A and B, prolactin, thyroid stimulating hormone, oxytocin-like substances, and various steroid hormones such as estrone, estradiol, estriol, progesterone, androsterone, deoxycorticosterone, 11-dehydrocorticosterone (compound A), cortisone (compound E), 17-hydroxycorticosterone (compound F), etc. Human placental prolactin is related to the chemical structure of human pituitary growth hormone, and has immune cross-reaction. It also has obvious synergistic effects with growth hormone in hypophysectomized rats, so it is also called prolactin-growth hormone. Some reports believe that placental prolactin has growth hormone-like effects; some reports also point out that placental hormones have no growth hormone-like effects in hypophysectomized rats.

Human placenta also contains a variety of enzymes with application value, such as lysozyme, kininase, histaminase, oxytocinase, etc. It also contains erythropoietin, phospholipids and various polysaccharides.

A large amount of components that relax the duodenum of rats and lower rat blood pressure were also obtained from the acidic extract of human placenta, and their properties are the same as prostaglandin E1.

The medicinal value of placenta

1. Treatment of bronchial asthma: Take the placenta of a healthy pregnant woman, wash it, dry it at low temperature, grind it into fine powder or make it into pills for later use. Take 6-12g daily, divided into 3 times after meals. Trial treatment of 2 cases, both of which were cured in the near future. There are also those who use acupuncture points for placental blood flow injection, and the acupuncture points are: Yingchuang, Feishu (main acupoint), Tiantu, Tanzhong, Zusanli, Sanyinjiao (accessory acupoints). Select 3-4 acupoints each time, 0.5ml per acupoint, and inject once a day or every other day. If you complain of local pain, add 0.4ml of 0.25% procaine to 1.6ml of placental blood and inject it into 4 acupoints. Trial treatment of 8 cases, 7 of which were effective; it is still effective if it relapses.

2. Treatment of chronic tracheitis: Use fresh placenta to make 20% distilled liquid, inject intramuscularly once a day, 2 ml each time, 10 days as a course of treatment. Treated 47 patients with long-term illness and weakness, who had repeated attacks after other treatments failed, and the results showed that 17 cases were almost cured, 24 cases were significantly effective, and 6 cases were improved. It has a certain effect on cough, sputum, and wheezing, and the patient's physical fitness has also been enhanced to varying degrees. No side effects were observed.

3. Treatment of skin ulcers: Take fresh placenta and use sterile operation to impact blood clots, remove fetal membranes, cut into small pieces of 1-2mm3, immerse in sterile physiological saline, place in a refrigerator at 1-4℃, and use it to implant the wound the next day. Usage: After debridement, spread the placental tissue flat and dry it, bandage and fix it. If it is a lower leg ulcer, wrap it with an elastic bandage from the toe to the knee. After 1 week, if the placenta is dry and scabs, or the scab surface is moist and there is no local tenderness and secretions, it will heal in 2-3 weeks. If the implantation fails, it can be performed again after 1 week. 30 cases were treated, and 22 cases were cured after 1-2 implantations, 4 cases improved, and 4 cases were ineffective. It has been observed that surface healing is closely related to local blood circulation, and the cure rate is low in those with poor blood circulation.

4. Treatment of breast milk deficiency: Oral administration of placenta powder, 0.5-1.0g each time, 3 times a day. The administration time generally starts from the 3rd day after delivery. A total of 57 cases were treated, and the number of days of medication was 1-7 days, with 2-4 days being the most common. The results showed that 6 people were effective after taking it for 1 day, 24 people were effective after taking it for 2 days, 6 people were effective after taking it for 3 days, 12 people were effective after taking it for 4 days, 3 people were effective after taking it for 5 days, 5 people were effective after taking it for 6 days, and 1 person was effective after taking it for 7 days.

Side Effects of Placenta

The placenta does contain many nutrients, but it will denature or degrade after being boiled or dried, and can only provide amino acids to the human body, but cannot produce its special physiological effects. Even if there are some "active substances" that are left by chance, after being taken orally, after being digested by gastric acid and various proteolytic enzymes in the stomach, it is no different from eating two taels of cooked pork. The most important thing is that because the placenta is connected to the mother's body, if the pregnant woman herself has some diseases that can be transmitted through the blood, the pathogens are likely to contaminate the placenta, such as AIDS, syphilis, hepatitis B, measles, etc.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, placenta is warm in nature and should not be used alone by patients with yin deficiency. It should also not be consumed by those with solid evil, otherwise it will add fuel to the fire. Therefore, it should be processed regularly and consumed scientifically under the guidance of a doctor after diagnosis.

Contraindications of using placenta

When taking placenta, pay attention to the following points:

1. Maintain good work and rest habits and try to avoid staying up late.

2. Eat less spicy or irritating food.

3. Actively participate in outdoor sports to relax.

4. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself and learn to relieve stress reasonably.