Pangolin Scales and Traditional Medicine: Separating Myth from Scientific Fact
Pangolin scales are made of the same substance as your fingernails. That single fact is the foundation for understanding why every medicinal claim made about them collapses under scientific scrutiny — and why those claims are costing pangolins their lives.
What Traditional Medicine Says About Pangolin Scales
The pangolin has appeared in traditional medical texts for centuries. In Chinese medicine, pangolin scales — known as chuan shan jia — have long been listed as an ingredient believed to stimulate blood circulation, reduce swelling, drain pus, and most persistently, promote lactation in breastfeeding mothers. Vietnamese traditional medicine shares many of these attributions. In parts of West Africa, pangolins figure in local healing traditions and spiritual practices, where different parts of the animal are associated with a range of protective or curative properties.
In more recent decades, as global demand has grown, bolder claims have emerged. Pangolin scales have been promoted in some markets as a treatment for rheumatism, arthritis, and skin conditions. Perhaps the most dangerous modern myth is the belief — circulating in parts of East and Southeast Asia — that pangolin derivatives can treat or even cure cancer. This claim has no traditional textual basis and no scientific foundation, yet it has helped drive prices upward and poaching pressure with them.
The Science: Keratin Has No Pharmacological Magic
Pangolin scales are composed almost entirely of keratin, the same fibrous structural protein that makes up human fingernails, toenails, hair, and the hooves and horns of various animals. Rhino horn, whose own market has been devastated by similar myths, is also keratin. So are the claws of a domestic cat.
Keratin is not inert — it plays vital structural roles in living organisms — but when dried, ground, and consumed, it has no demonstrated pharmacological activity. No peer-reviewed clinical study published in any indexed scientific journal has shown that consuming pangolin scales produces the effects attributed to them. A 2020 review of the pharmacological literature found no credible evidence that pangolin-derived products have efficacy for lactation, inflammation, rheumatism, or cancer beyond placebo.
In 2020, China briefly removed pangolin scales from its official pharmacopeia, a significant symbolic step, before subsequently reinstating them in a limited category. The decision reflected ongoing tension between cultural tradition and the scientific and conservation communities.
If It Is Just Keratin, Why Do People Believe It Works?
The persistence of these beliefs is not simply a matter of ignorance. Traditional medicine systems encode centuries of observation, and many plant-based ingredients within those systems do have demonstrable effects. The problem is that pangolin scales were included in compound formulations alongside genuinely active botanical ingredients, making it nearly impossible to isolate any effect attributable to the scales themselves. Post-hoc rationalisation did the rest.
Cultural authority, family tradition, and the high price of pangolin products — which signals rarity and potency in some consumer frameworks — reinforce belief independently of evidence. These are social and psychological factors, not medical ones.
The Scale of the Trade
The consequences of these beliefs are measurable in tonnes. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, estimates that more than 100,000 pangolins are trafficked each year, making pangolins the most illegally traded wild mammal on the planet. Between 2016 and 2019 alone, customs and law enforcement agencies recorded seizures of over 206 tonnes of pangolin scales — a figure that represents only the fraction of the trade that is intercepted.
Eight species of pangolin exist across Africa and Asia. All eight are listed on Appendix I of CITES, meaning international commercial trade is prohibited. All eight are classified as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Asian pangolin populations have been so heavily depleted that traffickers increasingly source from Africa: Sunda pangolins, Chinese pangolins, and Indian pangolins have been joined in the trade by ground pangolins and giant pangolins from sub-Saharan Africa.
Demand Centres: China, Vietnam, and Beyond
The primary demand markets for pangolin scales are in China and Vietnam, where they enter both licensed traditional medicine channels and unlicensed trade. High-end restaurants in some cities have historically served pangolin meat as a luxury item, distinct from but connected to the medicinal trade.
South Africa presents a somewhat different picture. The local muti trade — traditional medicine as practised by traditional healers — uses pangolin parts for purposes rooted in ngoma and sangoma traditions rather than Chinese medicine. Demand within this context is smaller in scale but culturally significant and adds pressure to already stressed local populations of ground pangolins (Smutsia temminckii).
West African demand, while less documented, is growing as transit routes through the region to Asia have expanded, bringing greater local exposure to pangolin markets.
What Demand Reduction Actually Looks Like
Conservation organisations have arrived at a consistent conclusion: as long as demand exists, enforcement alone cannot protect pangolins. Seizures are costly, dangerous, and catch only a fraction of the trade. The only durable solution is changing consumer behaviour and belief.
WildAid, which runs high-profile public awareness campaigns across Asia using celebrity advocates, has documented measurable reductions in demand for shark fins and ivory following sustained campaigns. Similar efforts are now directed at pangolin consumers, with messaging emphasising the keratin-fingernail equivalence as a memorable, concrete fact that undercuts perceived medicinal value.
TRAFFIC works at a different level, engaging with governments, traditional medicine regulatory bodies, and practitioners to reform pharmacopeias and encourage substitution. Their research has identified a number of plant-derived ingredients — including Wang Bu Liu Xing (Vaccaria seeds) for lactation and various anti-inflammatory botanicals — that are already present in many traditional formulations and that carry the same or greater traditional authority as pangolin scales, without the conservation cost.
The Role of Traditional Medicine Practitioners
It would be a mistake to frame the problem as traditional medicine versus conservation. Many licensed traditional medicine practitioners in China and Vietnam are themselves concerned about the association between their field and wildlife crime. Professional bodies have publicly endorsed substitution. The challenge is a fragmented market where unlicensed sellers, online platforms, and luxury gifting culture operate outside the reach of official guidance.
What Consumers Can Do
The leverage individual consumers have over pangolin survival is real and direct. If you or someone you know is considering pangolin-derived products for health reasons, these facts are worth keeping in mind:
- Pangolin scales are keratin. There is no clinical evidence they provide any benefit that a licensed, evidence-based treatment cannot match or exceed.
- Every scale in the trade comes from a killed pangolin. There is no captive-sourcing supply chain of meaningful scale.
- Purchasing pangolin products, including those sold as licensed or certified, sustains the criminal networks that traffic them.
- Licensed traditional medicine practitioners can recommend substitutes. Asking for one is a practical, culturally respectful option.
Reporting suspected pangolin trade to TRAFFIC's wildlife crime reporting channels or to local enforcement agencies costs nothing and may prevent multiple animals from being taken.
The Bottom Line
The traditional medicine market for pangolin scales is built on a foundation that does not survive contact with basic biochemistry. Scales are keratin. Keratin, consumed as a powder or decoction, does not stimulate lactation, reduce rheumatic inflammation, or treat cancer. The belief that it does is costing more than 100,000 pangolins their lives every year, pushing multiple species toward extinction.
The facts here are not ambiguous, and they are not the product of Western science dismissing other knowledge systems. Keratin is keratin in any laboratory in any country. The most effective thing the traditional medicine community, governments, and individual consumers can do for pangolins is to accept that simple chemical reality — and act on it.