Northeast China is known forits three treasures. Pilose Antler, aprecious medicine, is among them.The other two are ginseng and mar-ten pelt. But pilose antlers, whichare so tender it has not ossify catedand filled with blood capillaries,grow only on young stags and theyare covered with downlike hair. Aantlers when it turns two; and theyare good enough to be cut in the third year.Spring and summer are the seasons for collecting pilose antlers.
Another pair ofantlers shall grow where the first pair werecut, which means a young stag has to endure the painful and bloody experience once a year. There are cases in which astag has itsantlers cut twice a year; andthose cut in winter is known as "snowflake pilose antlers" which are very pre-cious among all Chinese medicinal materials.
The Chinese came to know the medicinal value of pilose antlers as early as2,000 years ago. In his Compendium of Materia Medica, the celebrated MingDynasty herbal istLi Shizhen pointed out that pilose antler spromote the secretion of marrowand other body fluid, preserveblood and increase the sexual potency, and strengthen thephysique. It provides ideal curefor physical weaknesses, ear and
eye diseases, and helps extendone's life span.
