Swallow Bird Nest Knowledge

Swallow Bird Nest is the saliva produced by a special species of swallow called the Swallow Bird Nest while building the nest. the saliva glues with other impurities (such as feathers) to form the nest.

There are 3 harvesting periods of Swallow Bird Nest in a year:

First phase (first harvesting period : from November to January every year-springtime of Indonesia)
In this season of abundance and thriving, the Swallow Bird Nest grows up strong and healthy and is able to secrete plentiful saliva. Under such favourable enviroment, Swallow Bird Nest harvested during this period is purer and gets bigger expansion after soaking. The body of Swallow Bird Nest is obviously larger in size and thicker in texture. Swallow Bird Nest in this phase is the most nutritious and contains much more proteins and minerals.
IBNI has its own Swallow Bird Nest farmhouses and processing plants in Indonesia. Some time before every Chinese Lunar New Year, IBNI ships fresh ‘first phase’ Swallow Bird Nest to Hong Kong through air cargo. This guarantees sufficient supply of ‘first phase’ Swallow Bird Nest in the market all the year round.
Second phase & third phase
It is not as good comparing with the first phase Swallow Bird Nest in terms of quality and quantity. During these seasons, the Swallow Bird Nest is weak due to unfavourable weather and lean food supply. Saliva secretion is slow and lots of feathers fall off, thus increase impurities. The Swallow Bird Nest is usually smaller in size and has lesser expandability.

Swallow Bird Nest Knowledge

Function:

Over one hundred years of consumption by people, Swallow Bird Nest had been confirmed by many scholars & experts and sees it as a kind of tonic with healing effects.
In recent years, the Chineses University of Hong Kong had conducted a thorough and in-depth study on Swallow Bird Nest.
It was discovered that the water soluble protein of Swallow Bird Nest contains both Mitogenic Stimulation Factor and Epidermic Browth Factor which can:
- enhance the rebirth of cells, reinforce the immune system
- restore energy and stamina
- fortify human body's tolerance towards the damage done by X-rays of other radioactive treatments
- boost heart functions
- supply heat energy to human's body
Swallow Bird Nest has become more and more popular over these years. Lot of peolpe see it as health enhancing food. it also promote growth of children, accelerate recovery from illness and after giving birth.
From a nutririon point of view, Swallow Bird Nest contains:
- 60% proteins (water soluble proteins) and several amino acids
- 10% water content
- 30% of cellulose, carbohydrates, a little fat and various minaral such as calcium, sulphide, pottassium, phosphor and iodine.
Swallow Bird Nest can be taken by people of any age of gender:
- New Born Baby: Stew Swallow Bird Nest until it is dessolved in water and then mix it with milk or rice porridge. This can help digestion, regulate digestive ststem and enhance appetite.
- Pregnant woman (during pregnancy): Help promote the brain growth of the fetus.
- Pregnant woman (giving birth) :speed up revovery of body shape and bring back beauty
- Children: Improve immune ststem, facilitate healthy growth of body and brain
- Adolescents: Accelerate metabolism, strengthen the body functions. Giving fine and fair skin.
- Tension, workload fatique: Relieve tiredness and alleviate pressure.
- Weakness after illness, asthma patient: Regain energy and strength, improve immune ststem and smooth breathing
- People suffering sleep disorder and having hot body characteristic: Dissipate intestinal heat, moisten lung

Identified by its origin, Swallow Bird Nest can be catrgorized as "cave nest" and "house nest"

House Nest (including common white Swallow Bird Nest and house grass Swallow Bird Nest)
House nest is the Swallow Bird Nest built inside a special house called 'farmhouse'. The swiflet builds its nest on the beams and walls inside the house. The Swallow Bird Nest, therefore, may bear slight wood-chips smell. Farmhouses are mainly found in the coastal area of Indonesia, particularly around Badong, Balai and Java. Workers conduct inspection on the Swallow Bird Nest in the farmhouse regularly and cut the nest down for further processing (removal of feathers and impurities) in the plant.
The characteristics of House nest are: good quality, few detached feathers and having smooth mouth-feel. Its expandability is high after soaking 5 to 7 times in average. White Swallow Bird Nest has softer mouth-feel but cannot be stewed too long. It is preferrable to stew the nest for 30 to 45 minutes before serving. Furthermore, house nest can be classified as yellow Swallow Bird Nest (golden Swallow Bird Nest) and red Swallow Bird Nest(bloody red Swallow Bird Nest).
If the stewing time is too long (over 1 to 2 hour), the Swallow Bird Nest will dissolve in water and disappear.
Cave Nest (including cave Swallow Bird Nest, cave grass Swallow Bird Nest and feather Swallow Bird Nest)
Cave Swallow Bird Nest os harvested in caves and therefore is absorbs plentiful mineral from the rock. Workers use a special kind of tool to pick the Swallow Bird Nest.
Cave Swallow Bird Nest is mainly in beige of yellow colour. Comparing to house nest, it contains more hair feathers, has firmer tissue and bigger expandability. It can be stewed for a longer time and the stewed Swallow Bird Nest gives our fragrant smell with good mouth-feel.

Swallow Bird Nest

Products

The Swallow Bird Nest (Aerodramus fuciphagus) is a small bird of the swift family which is found in South-east Asia. Its nest is entirely made of solidified saliva with little or no plant material. The nests are made by the males during a period of 35 days.
Its diet consists of flying insects which are caught on the wing. Naturally these Swallow Bird Nests breed in colonies in caves, in a cleft in a cliff or sometimes on a building.
The bracket-shaped nest is white and translucent and is made of layers of hardened saliva attached to the rock. It measures about 6 cm across with a depth of 1.5 cm and a weight of about 14 grams.
Average Swallow Bird Nest contain about 62 per cent proteins including amino acids, about 27 per cent carbohydrate and a few per cent minerals, fat and moisture.
The most common nests have a white to grayish color. There are also more expensive yellow to orange and red colored nests (also called: red blood nests) marketed, which are harvested from limestone caves and the specific color is natural due to the environment. Red nests are thought to be more potent than then the yellow-orange and they should be more potent then the white ones.

Introduction

The Swallow Bird Nest are made by the "South East Asia's Swallow Bird Nests" (Aerodramus fuciphagus). These sparrows like birds construct their nest with glutinous strands of starched like saliva produced by a pair of large, salivary glands under their tongue.
These very special kind of nests are found mostly in Hainan Island of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo Island (consisting of Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan) and the Philippines.
The collectors of Swallow Bird Nest harvest about 5 times a year, but assure that the bird's can reproduce during the months February until July.
The traditional method of harvesting has not been able to keep up with the escalating demand for Swallow Bird Nests, prompting some inventive technology. Concrete or wood nesting houses have been built along the sea coast, mostly in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
vogelnestjes geoogst Photo: Swallow Bird Nest just after harvesting. After collection comes the tedious process of cleaning the nests. They are soaked in water to soften the nest cement so that feathers and bits of dirt can be removed with tweezers.
benseng-vogelnestjes wit premium kwaliteit Photo: Real white Swallow Bird Nest from premium quality after cleaning.

Application

In some countries of Southeast Asia the edible nests are mainly consumed as a delicacy used in the preparation of soups and other dishes. The soup is made by soaking the nests in plenty of water. Then let it simmer for as long it takes for the Swallow Bird Nest to dissolve completely. In this way it is also possible to brew a tea from it.
It is said that cave nests are better as it takes up to three hours to double boil them while nests farmed in houses or other manmade structures take only 30 minutes.
Occasionally Swallow Bird Nest are used as food supplements. For this application either the dry nests are ground into powder or an extract is made from it.
Externally edible nest extracts are sometimes worked in cosmetics. Facial masks and beauty crèmes are sighted in the market.

Industrial application

There are still no industrial application known of the Swallow Bird Nest.

Dosage

The optimum beneficial dosage of the Swallow Bird Nest has not been supported by any scientific research.
Because it is such a costly ingredient, for therapeutic purposes most often 5-10 grams of dried whole Swallow Bird Nest (1-2 dry nests) are taken as soup or tea 2-4 times a week for as long as the complaints last.
For cosmetic purposes it is sufficient to use only 1-2 nests weekly.

Contra-indications

The use of Swallow Bird Nest can generally be regarded as safe. Nevertheless one should make sure that the real Swallow Bird Nest are obtained.

• Swallow Bird Nest should not be taken by children or adolescents, because of increased risk of food-induced anaphylaxis.
• Ovotransferrin is known to be responsible for egg allergies, and interestingly, very similar reactions have been seen in some young children after consuming Swallow Bird Nest.
• There are fake nests in the market that can contain harm full ingredients.
• The red colour of the very expensive Red blood nests is sometimes artificially made by adding large amounts of sodium nitrite. Nitrite is a toxic substance that is highly carcinogenic.

This document is for professionals only. It is the responsibility of the user to refer to the laws in force in the country of sale and determine the relevance of the products for the intended use. This ingredient is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. The allegations have not all been evaluated by EFSA, they are not intended to be labelled on a commodity to the consumer.