What are Swiftlet’s Nest benefits scientifically?

Swiftlet’s Nest is a rare delicacy. It is one of eight nutritional treasures and is highly coveted in the Asian culture. Often referred to as the “caviar of the East”, Swiftlet’s Nest is among the most expensive delicacies consumed by humans. Modern science has decoded the components in Swiftlet’s Nest. Thanks to that, we now understand the Swiftlet’s Nest benefits scientifically.

1. What is Swiftlet’s Nest?

Swiftlet’s Nest is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The Swiftlet’s Nest is a glue-like substance made of saliva secreted from the swiftlet’s sublingual glands during breeding season, then are harvested for human consumption.
Swiftlet’s Nest are particularly prized in Chinese culture due to their rarity, and supposedly high nutritional value and exquisite flavor. They are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, with nests being sold recently at prices up to about US $5,000 per kilogram, depending on grading.
The type or grading of Swiftlet’s Nest depends on the type of bird as well as the diet of the bird. It differs in colour from white to dark brown.

What are Swiftlet’s Nest benefits scientifically?

2. What are Swiftlet’s Nest benefits?

Swiftlet’s Nest contains an abundant amount of 18 different amino acids, some of which cannot be manufactured by the human body and must be obtained through dietary sources.
Swiftlet’s Nest contains a significant amount of aspartic acid (4.69%) and proline (5.27%), which promote cell regeneration; cysteine and phenylalanine (4.50%) have been shown to enhance memory, increase nerve impulse conduction and absorption of vitamin D from sunlight; syalic acid and tyrosine (8.6%) speeds up recovery; glucosamine helps restore cartilage and bursae in the case of osteoarthritis...
In particular, syalic acid and tyrosine are metabolized quickly during the removal of toxic substances and stimulates the growth of red blood cells.
In addition to amino acids, Swiftlet’s Nest contain large amount of protein (45-55% by weight). Swiftlet’s Nest contains glycoproteins, a high energy substance that the body can easily absorb. Moreover, there are 31 elements that are found in Swiftlet’s Nest. For example, Swiftlet’s Nest are rich in calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg).
These minerals are essential for normal functioning of the body. Elements that are useful for memory and nerve functions such as Mn, Br, Cu, and Zn are also found in high levels in Swiftlet’s Nest. Other rare element such as Cr, which enhances absorption of nutrients through the intestinal membranes, and Se, which is an anti-aging agent are found in Swiftlet’s Nest in small quantity.
Given its rarity and nutritional values, it is no surprise that Swiftlet’s Nest is highly coveted. Swiftlet’s Nest can also be used to stimulate the appetite, improve digestion and stimulate bowel movement.
Regular consumption of Swiftlet’s Nest can help prevent colds and flus by improving the function of the lungs and kidneys. When consumed in moderation, Swiftlet’s Nest unique predigested form of proteins and nutrients is believe to boost the body’s immune system, increase resistance to external environmental factors and to aid recovery from chronic illnesses.
Swiftlet’s Nest contains galactose without fat. Threonine found in Swiftlet’s Nest supports collagen and elastin formation, these two substances are important in the reconstructuring of skin cell structure and when combined with glycine can prevent wrinkles as well as anti-aging, anti-acne, reduce formation of pigmentation spots leaving the skin smooth and full of vitality.
In traditional Chinese medicine, Swiftlet’s Nest is classified as a tonic. It can help improve physical and mental health of the elderly. For example, improving memory (phenylalanine), liver problems (threonine), intestinal (histidine), regulate blood sugar (leucine), increase ability to absorb calcium, anti-aging spine (lysine), anti-arthritis (methionine). In particular, tyrosine can help speed up recovery from radiation therapy and chemotherapy in cancer patients and patients after surgery.
Currently Swiftlet’s Nest is being investigate as an HIV-AIDS treatment because it has been found to stimulate growth of white blood cells.
Long term consumption of small amounts of Swiftlet’s Nest have shown to have the best effects. The best method to cook Swiftlet’s Nest is by placing it in a ceramic bowl then place the bowl in a larger pot and fill the pot with water half way up the bowl. One nest per week is enough. You can divide it into 3 portions and eat 1 portion every other day.
Additionally, Swiftlet’s Nest contains high levels of calcium (65% daily value), iron, potassium and magnesium. Balanced levels of these minerals help improve bone strength, enhance circulation which reduces the risks of cardiovascular diseases, promote a healthy metabolism, and protect against infections by stimulating the production of white blood cells.
Moreover, Swiftlet’s Nest contains an EGF-like component that stimulates tissue growth and regeneration. This could be one of the reasons that Swiftlet’s Nest has rejuvenating properties. Swiftlet’s Nest also provides significant protection against viral infections, most notably influenza.

3. Swiftlet’s Nest benefits in details according to scientific analysis:

Swiftlet’s Nest contains up to 18 essential amino acids (***) cannot be manufactured by the human body and must be obtained through dietary sources. Some of their health benefits are below:
***Lysine is involved in the production of antibodies for a strong and healthy immune system. It is well known for its antiviral properties and helps prevent outbreaks of herpes and cold sores. Moreover, lysine promotes the formation of both collagen and muscle protein, and may help speed up recovery from surgery and injuries. It is also needed for hormone production and the growth and maintenance of bones in both children and adults.
***Methionine helps prevent the accumulation of fat in the liver to ensure normal liver function, which is essential for the elimination of toxins from the body. Methionine also supports liver function by regulating glutathione, an antioxidant that is needed to help neutralize toxins in the liver.
Our body also needs methionine to produce cysteine and taurine, which help the body eliminate toxins, build strong, healthy tissues, and promote cardiovascular health. Methionine is needed to make creatine, which is necessary for all muscular function, and thus supports normal functioning of the heart and circulatory system. Methionine is essential for the formation of healthy collagen. Methionine supplement can improve memory in people with AIDS.
***Phenylalanine is needed for normal functioning of the central nervous system. Phenylalanine is especially effective for treating brain disorders such as depression and chronic pain. Phenylalanine supplementation may improve memory and concentration. It may also help you feel happier, less hungry and more alert.
***Threonine supports cardiovascular, liver, central nervous, and immune system function. Threonine also supports the immune system by aiding in the production of antibodies.
Threonine promotes normal growth by helping to maintain the proper protein balance in the body. Threonine helps keep connective tissues and muscles throughout the body strong and elastic, including the heart, where it is found in significant amounts. It also helps build strong bones and tooth enamel.
Alanine helps regulate blood sugar by helping the body convert the simple sugar glucose into energy and eliminate excess toxins from the liver. It is crucial for preserving balanced levels of nitrogen and glucose in the body.
Arginine plays an essential role in the health of connective tissues such as joints and muscles. By enhancing circulation, arginine may help reduce the risks of heart disease. Other benefits of arginine include promotion of male fertility, enhancement of the immune system, regulation of hormones and blood sugar. Additionally, arginine may help reduce body fat and speed up weight loss.
Aspartic acid keeps your mind sharp and is sometimes used to treat fatigue and depression. It may also promote a healthy metabolism.
Cysteine helps maintain a healthy, youthful appearance by encouraging collagen production and skin elasticity. Cysteine’s detoxifying effects may also protect the body from oxidative stress. Moreover, cysteine stimulates the production of white blood cells and provides some protection against Influenza
Glutamic acid is important in the metabolism of sugars and fats. It is used in the treatment of childhood behavioral disorders, epilepsy, mental retardation, muscular dystrophy, ulcers, and hypoglycemic coma.
Glycine helps regulate blood sugar levels by supplying the body with glucose needed for energy. Glycine supplementation may be useful for treating hypoglycemia, anemia, and chronic low energy and fatigue. Additionally, glycine may protect against development of cancerous tumors and melanoma.
It helps protect tissues against UV rays, oxidation and free radicals. Glycine is essential for a healthy, normally functioning digestive system. It helps regulate the synthesis of bile acid used to digest fats.
Moreover, glycine is necessary for central nervous system function. It helps to improve memory retrieval. Lastly, glycine also seems to play a role in keeping the prostate healthy and reduce the symptoms of prostatic hyperplasia in men.
Histidine levels in the body must be balanced to ensure good mental and physical health. Low levels of histidine may contribute to the development of rheumatoid arthritis and certain type of deafness.
Histidine is also important for normal sexual functioning, because it gets converted into histamine, a chemical needed to stimulate sexual arousal. It is sometime used to treat certain types of sexual dysfunction. Additionally, histidine is important in the development and maintenance of healthy tissues.
It acts as a natural detoxifier, protecting against radiation damage, and removing heavy metals from the system. Histine may even help prevent the onset of AIDS as it is crucial to the production of both red and white blood cells.
Isoleucine is best known for its ability to repair muscles, keeps energy levels stable by helping to regulate blood sugar. A deficiency of isoleucine produces symptoms similar to those of hypoglycemia, and may include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, depression, confusion, and irritability.
Leucine promotes the healing of bones, skin, and muscle tissue after traumatic injury, and is often recommended for those recovering from surgery. Leucine works with isoleucine and valine to increases production of growth hormones, and helps burn visceral fat, which is located in the deepest layers of the body and the least responsive to dieting and exercise.
Serine is especially important to proper functioning of the brain and central nervous system. Serine is also involved in the fat and fatty acid metabolism, muscle formation, and the maintenance of a healthy immune system. Serine helps produce immunoglobulins and antibodies for a strong immune system.
Valine helps prevent the breakdown of muscle by supplying the muscles with extra glucose for energy production during intense physical activity. Valine also helps remove potentially toxic excess nitrogen from the liver, and is able to transport nitrogen to other tissues in the body as needed. Valine may help treat liver and gallbladder disease, as well as damage to these organs caused by alcoholism and drug abuse.
​* Swiftlet’s Nest is a food product and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant or breast feeding, please consult with your healthycare professionals before consuming our products.

How the Ancient Practice of Harvesting Swiftlet’s Nest Is Facing Some Very Modern Challenges

Balancing on a bamboo platform suspended dozens of meters up in the Madai cave in Malaysian Borneo, a man vigorously tears cup-shaped protrusions off the rock wall. They’re Swiftlet’s Nest and will soon fetch hundreds of dollars in the market.

“Madai is God’s gift to Idahan people,” says Jafaar bin Abdullah, a local harvester. For centuries, the Idahan tribe has subsisted from this lucrative, if death-defying, trade. This should be their time to cash in, since a booming Chinese middle class has shot demand for the nests through the roof. Yet, the Idahans’ way of life may be about to die out.

Swiftlet’s Nest are coveted across the Chinese world for their supposedly medicinal and rejuvenating powers.

Built out of a protein-rich secretion produced by the swallow-like swiftlet, the nests are served in soups, desserts or drunk pure, as a gelatinous tonic. Because of the laborious picking and cleaning process, Swiftlet’s Nest have become one of the world’s most expensive food products. With the approach of Chinese New Year, when the nests are traditionally savored at lavish banquets, demand and prices rocket.
Yet profits are also being squeezed. As the industry has mushroomed to an estimated value of $5 billion, prices have also plummeted, owing to new farming techniques. Neighborhoods across Southeast Asia are being taken over by windowless structures emulating cave environments and attracting Swiftlet’s Nest with birdsong blasted through loudspeakers. It’s apparently an effective trick, because Swiftlet’s Nest are being domesticated at a scale never witnessed with another wild species.

As night falls, swarms of Swiftlet’s Nest thousands-strong form in the outskirts of Johor Bahru, a sprawling city in southern peninsular Malaysia that sits opposite affluent Singapore. The birds dart into holes in the roofs with exquisite precision, as if hoovered in by a gigantic vacuum. Inside one of the stripped-down former office spaces, Yang Dequan uses a mirror attached to a cane to check on his avian tenants, nesting on the beams along the ceiling. At the switch of a knob on his stereo equipment, the recorded birdsong grows more intense, setting the room aflutter.
“This is their warning call and will make them return home to check on their chicks,” he says. “I’ve studied the variety of bird calls, air ventilation, sanitation and pest control. You need to have love for the birds in order to succeed.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has highlighted the industry for its growth potential and his government is promoting loans to give it a further boost. In Malaysia alone, the number of farms have surged from an estimated 1,000 a decade ago to over 60,000 today, and in Vietnam and Cambodia the business is only just about to take off. Cheap nests have swamped the main retail market in Hong Kong.
“Before we used to sell nests by the tael [37.8 g],” says a salesman surnamed Luk on Wing Lok Street, nicknamed Swiftlet’s Nest Street. “Now we sell by the kilogram.”

Farms have many advantages:

Nests here are easier to pick and they are also easier to clean, since owners only attract “white-Swiftlet’s Nest,” a variety that doesn’t build nests riddled with feathers. Once a farm is up and running it takes very little maintenance, and the initial investment of about $15,000 can be made back in a couple of years. It is a world away from where the trade started.
In the weeks leading up to harvest in Madai, the cave is buzzing with activities. Bamboo ladders and platforms are constructed, ropes inspected and goats sacrificed.
“If we don’t give a sacrifice as compensation for the nests we take, the penunggu [guardian spirit] will take the life of one of us,” says Jafaar.
Like every Idahan, Jafaar has inherited a portion of the cave to harvest from his grandmother. Every 10 years the lots are swapped within the tribe, in order to share the more prolific patches.
“We’re the caves’ heirs and it’s brought us a lot of development,” says village elder Sabtria binti Haji Kaharuddin. “Now we have cars and a road, when I was little there was only jungle.”
But to live off the cave is becoming increasingly difficult. On top of decreasing prices the inherited lots are becoming smaller. New laws have also pushed the Idahan out of their lands in favor of commercial plantations of oil palm and cocoa. Now they take jobs in town and hire Filipinos and Indonesians to do the dirty work in the cave. Traditions are slowly dying out. The cave mouth is littered with graffiti and only a handful of the ancestral stone tombs along the pathway remain intact. In the neighboring province of Sarawak nest theft has become so rampant that swiftlet populations have been severely depleted. In the great cave of Niah, a major tourist attraction, colonies that once comprised about 4 million birds have all but vanished.
The vast majority of Swiftlet’s Nest today are farmed. Yet, challenges abound here too. A scandal of nitrate-contaminated nests prompted a Chinese import ban in 2011. Smuggling through Hong Kong is believed to have kept demand on the mainland satisfied, but the prohibition still led to a shake-up of the previously unregulated industry. Exporters now need to run their products through laboratory tests to receive China’s approval. Tan Boon Siong, the former head of the Swiftlet’s Nest Farmers Association in Johor Bahru, swears by the “miraculous” powers of Swiftlet’s Nest. However, he concedes that there’s been widespread manipulation and lack of hygienic knowledge.
“Nitrate is only one of the problems,” Tan says. “There is also lead, cadmium, arsenic. Some farmers believe that the more droppings there are, the more birds will be attracted. They spray the nests with insecticides to get rid of ticks and add salt water and preservatives to make them appear more plump and last longer.”

Consumers are perhaps not the only ones that need to be concerned.

Neighbors of bird farms have long complained of the noise the birds make, the smell they produce and the bugs that come along with them. Lord Gathorne Cranbrook, a zoologist with over 40 years experience studying Swiftlet’s Nest and the author of Swiftlet’s Nest of Borneo, warns of the unknown.
“I’ve always been anxious of diseases, avian malaria and so on, going around,” he says. “It’s extraordinary to have an industry with birds in domestication, but we haven’t assessed the veterinary risks, haven’t researched the harvest cycle. How does this affect the wild population? We’re very unknowledgeable, to an extent you wouldn’t see in any other industry.”
In Gomantong Cave, some 250 km west of Madai, the yells in Bahasa Malaysia that reverberate across the cathedral-like expanse betray little of such concerns.
“Left! Further left! Hold!”
A team of workers is systematically picking clean the up to 60-m-high walls, on behalf of a Chinese businessman who has bought the rights to this harvest. In 11 days they will empty the cave of a ton of nests. Zakaria bin Rugi stands on one of the guano hills, holding a rope connected to the steel ladder the pickers are balancing on. A few more days, then his career is over.
“I promised my children to quit, they think it’s too dangerous,” he says. “But in my 59 years as a harvester I’ve only seen one man die, and he was very unlucky.”
Zakaria considers himself very lucky. His work has put his children through school. He is respected within his trade. The question is for how long his kind of expertise will hold any value. Or if farms will soon monopolize the industry, leaving the remaining wild Swiftlet’s Nest alone in their nests high up on Southeast Asia’s cave walls.