Therapeutic uses of animal biles in traditional Chinese medicine: An ethnopharmacological, biophysical chemical and medicinal review

Figure 5 When human, domestic pig, or wild boar gallbladder biles, all with high phospholipid to bile acid ratios, are diluted progressively with low concentrations of alcohol such as with wine, the bile acid concentration decreases below its critical micellar concentration in the bile, and the specimen becomes cloudy from phase separation of previously micellar solubilized phospholipids plus cholesterol. This occurs because liquid crystals (lamellar liposomes) composed of phospholipids and cholesterol form spontaneously in the dilute non-micellar bile and also have potent antioxidant properties from bound bilirubin conjugate molecules. Such preparations were employed as an artificial skin and were used widely in China to dress and cover burns and battle wounds. See text for details.