The Business Center: General

 
Dit Da Jow Recipes
Dit Da Jow by Dr. John Crescione

Dit Da Jow (Cantonese) or Tieh Ta Chiao (Mandarin) means "Hit and Fall Wine" (or liniment). Jow, as it is commonly referred to, can be broken down into two types: Han Dit Da Jow (cold hit medicine) and Rei Dit Da Jow (hot hit medicine).

Hot Jow is actually heated for situations that require a lot of circulation, blood flow and lymphatic drainage into an area. Cold Jow is used as an all-purpose, when in doubt and after the fact, injury liniment. Its properties are similar to hot Jow except:

  • it's not heated
  • the herbs used are different
  • to promote the breakup of stagnant blood, lymph and energy circulation
Both types are rubbed into the skin before and after a workout for best results. It should be noted that one of the secrets of the magical Jow formula is in the rubbing. Remember way back as a kid, when you got a cold and Mom or Grandma would come in and rub you down with alcohol or Vicks, the secret was in the rub. Soft tissue manipulation alone will promote many of the qualities without the Jow, though the medicine speeds up the healing time and prevents improper drainage and stagnation problems. While we are on the subject of rubbing, Tiger Balm is the oriental version of Ben Gay or Vicks. If you can't get a good Jow, or if you don't want to buy it store-bought because of the quality, or "it just has to be made fresh and official by my teacher", Tiger Balm is almost as good. If you want to make your own because you can't find it (hard to believe), here's how to do it. I'll get to the Jow recipe in a minute.
  • Take a small jar of Vaseline, a small jar of Vicks, cayenne red pepper (it's somewhere in the kitchen on your spice rack) and either dried red chilli peppers (most gourmet stores have them) or red chilli peppers that have already been bottled.
  • Put the Vaseline in a pot and melt it on the stove at low heat.
  • Add two or three tablespoons of Vicks--depending on how smelly and mentholly you want it--until that also is melted.
  • Grind up the red pepper until it's a powder, mix it with the cayenne pepper and add to the melted Vaseline.
  • While in its liquid state, repour it back into a jar and let cool. 
I did not mention the quantities of either the cayenne pepper or the chilli pepper because that will be up to you based on the desired strength of your compound. If you use a small jar of Vaseline and you want it hot, use two tablespoons of both peppers finely ground and stirred into the compound. When it cools it will be a pink to red color. You've just made Red Tiger Balm--congratulations!

Now back to the Jow--the recipe that I will give you is a simple one that uses common Chinese herbs that are for the most part easy to get in herb catalogs or herbal stores if you have a Chinatown or wholistic community near you.

(these are the botanical names and Chinese names) 1 oz.=30 grams 

  • 1 bottle of strong vodka, gin or Chinese rice wine
  • Artemesia (Liu ji nu) - 5g
  • Borneol (Bingpian) - 1g
  • Carthamus (Honghua) - 5g
  • Catechu (Ercha) - 8g
  • Cinnabar (Zhusha) - 5g 
  • Cirsium (DaJi) - 1g 
  • Dragon's Blood (Xuejie) - 30g 
  • Mastic (Ruxiang) - 5g 
  • Musk (Shexiang) - 1g 
  • Myrrh (Moyao) - 5g 
  • Pinellia (ShengBanXia) - 5g 
Take all ingredients and grind into a fine powder, add the whole bottle of vodka or gin. Mix well and rub into the injured area. The beauty of this particular recipe is that you don't have to bury it for 35 days to two months before you can use it. Classically when you made Jow it had to be buried underground for an extended period of time before it was ready to be used. There was no magical/mystical reasoning behind it. Sunlight and heat oxidize the herbs and change the chemical properties so, keeping in mind it's around the year 1700, where are you going to store this stuff when you need a dark cool dry place? And what do you use to ferment and age your herbal combination to get the most out of your ingredients-- alcohol. That's why a 100-year old Scotch Whiskey is supposed to be so good.

If you desire to have the herbs soak, pour the combination into a dark glass container and place it in a closet or cupboard where it shouldn't get too hot, and periodically shake the liniment once or twice a week. You should note that if you do this the traditional way then the herbs are loosely ground, and not into a powder. And the longer they sit in the bottle the stronger the Jow becomes. This is the reason many Kung Fu practitioner's who are traditionally or classically trained will not buy store bought Jow, but prefer to make our own. The store bought Jow never has any of the herbs at the bottom of the bottle that they come in. Also some Jow is sold in plastic bottles, and over time the plastic starts to break down into the herbal formula. And some Jow is even sold in clear bottles with no way to know how long it's been in there. A decent Jow should look like soy sauce in color and have a slight alcohol, medicinal smell. Please note this Jow recipe may not be as dark or "smelly" due to the quality of herbs, time left to soak before usage, cooking properties of some of the herbs, combinations of the specific herbs or the specific usage properties. This is a "fast" formula, it's original intent is to be made now to use now, not in a month or two.

It is important that Jow not be rubbed into open wounds, taken internally or gotten in the eyes. If it's an old chronic injury the rubbing technique is usually slow and deep, if it's relatively new then it's a light, quick type of rubbing. Secondly, learn as much as you can about herbs, both American and Chinese. 

Another Jow recipe:

  • Arnica blossoms (anti-inflamatory, pain relief)
  • Comfrey (anti-inflamatory, pain relief)
  • Blessed Thistle (blood purifier)
  • Goldenseal root (antibiotic, wound healing)
  • Ginger root (circulation, wound healing, pain relief)
  • Myrrh (antiseptic, circulation, wound healing)
  • Sasparilla root (blood purifier)
  • Witch Hazel (anti-inflamatory, pain relief)
Use equal proportions of all the items listed, by weight. You can meaure them out on a small kitchen scale.

Grind the herbs in a mortar & pestle (or electric grinder) and place them in a glass jar. Add 80 or 90 proof grain alcohol (I use vodka); use 4 ounces of dried herbs to one pint of alcohol base (or equivalent proportions). Seal the jar tightly. Allow the infusion to work for two weeks; once or twice a day, swirl the liquid gently through the herbal mash. After two weeks, strain off the liquid and discard the herbal residue; pour into smaller glass containers.

This tincture can be applied as is to swollen or bruised areas, or can be mixed with a thickener (like lanolin or safflower oil) and a hardener (like beeswax) to make an ointment. This formulation has also been effective in the treatment of arthritis, for pain relief and restoration of range of motion.

All Purpose Jow

  • Alcohol (Vodka, Gin, Brandy - even Rubbing Alcohol) 1 or 2 quarts
  • Breadstraw 
  • Calendula (Marigold)
  • Camomile 
  • Comfrey (if you can still get it - you may have to grow your own if you want to add this) 
  • Common Club Moss 
  • Cow slip 
  • Dandelion 
  • Shepherd's Purse 
  • Stinging Nettle 
  • St. John's Wort 
  • Wintergreen oil (Many times this comes together with rubbing alcohol, either way is fine - obviously if you're going to use rubbing alcohol you won't need the vodka, gin, etc. Remember, boxers and other athletes have been using it for hundreds of years and they get abused a lot more on a daily basis than most of us.) 
Use 1 oz. of each herb, pour the alcohol into a glass jar (or back into the alcohol bottle - all the herbs should have been ground or are small enough to funnel in). Leave it in a dark place for a week, shaking occasionally and you're ready to roll (figuratively speaking, no pun intended). True, the longer it keeps the better it will be, but you can use it in about an hour or two if necessary.

Iron Palm Jow

Use the above formula but you add the following: 

  • Horestail [horsetail?] 
  • Mallow 
  • Cow parsnip 
  • Fenugreek 
  • Walnut 
  • Yellow Dead Nettle 

The next step in all this is to explain how this fits in the Business Center. Well, first off it's an excellent liniment for students who are getting banged up. It is also something that you may be able to sell as well.