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Essence of chicken

Supplement animal-derived energybrain & mood
Aka: chicken extract, bottled chicken essence
Brands seen in Singapore: Brand's, Eu Yan Sang, New Moon, Kinohimitsu, Polleney
Not medical advice. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before you start, stop or change the timing of anything you take.
How to use
What it’s for
Cognition and mental fatigue — evidence graded low
When to take
Daily
Take with
After meals · the 4-week trial used 70 ml twice a day
Studied for
Trials ran 7 to 42 days
Pros & cons
Pros
  • Seven RCTS exist — unusual for a traditional tonic
  • 4-week crossover trial: better mental-fatigue recovery
  • No adverse effects in the two trials that checked
Cons
  • Six of the seven trials had a high risk of bias
  • Several trials were funded by the manufacturer
  • Review: too early to say it improves cognition
Sources
  1. Chicken Essence for Cognitive Function Improvement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016) — what chicken essence is · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Chicken essence (CE) is the cooked, concentrated, liquid extract from chicken, which is a popular traditional remedy amongst Asians … carnosine and anserine are the most concentrated active ingredients”
  2. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — included trials, participants and durations · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “a total of seven trials involving a total of 363 participants were included in this review … None of the trials assessed the effect of CE in children … duration of intake varied from … seven days … to forty-two days”
  3. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — risk of bias · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “With assessment of quality using ROB tool, almost all (6/7) trials were found to have overall high ROB. One trial was found to have overall unclear ROB”
  4. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — funding of the included trials · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “three trials clearly reported that they received funding from a CE company (Cerebos Pacific Limited, Singapore) while four trials did not mention their source of funding”
  5. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — GRADE quality of evidence · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Using GRADE approach, the quality of evidence to recommend CE for improving executive functions was found to be either low or very low. The same scenario applied for recommendation of short-term memory where the quality of evidence was very low”
  6. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — adverse effects · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Adverse effects of consuming CE were assessed in two out of seven trials. One trial reported no significant difference between CE group and placebo group on the reported rates of thirst, decreased bowel movements, tiredness, and slight insomnia”
  7. Teoh et al., Nutrients 2016 — conclusion · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “With the current evidence available, it is premature to support the claim that CE has cognitive-enhancing effects. More high quality RCTs are needed to better determine its effect”
  8. Effects of chicken essence on recovery from mental fatigue in healthy males (Yamano et al., Med Sci Monit 2013) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “We showed that daily oral administration of BEC (essence of chicken) improved recovery from mental fatigue manifested as the impairment of cognitive function in healthy males. This is the first study to show a favorable anti-fatigue outcome using BEC”
  9. Yamano et al., Med Sci Monit 2013 — dose and schedule · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “The participants receiving chicken extract were given 1 bottle of Brand's Essence of Chicken (BEC; Cerebos Pacific Ltd., Singapore) twice a day (after breakfast and dinner) for 4 weeks … A bottle of BEC (70 ml)”
  10. Yamano et al., Med Sci Monit 2013 — limitations and funding · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “the results of the present study were obtained with a small sample size. Third, the participants were only healthy males in their thirties from single country or culture … This work was supported in part by Cerebos Pacific Ltd.”
  11. HSA — Guidelines on Prohibited and Restricted Ingredients in Health Supplements and Traditional Medicines, GL-CHPB-1-012 Rev 001 (Oct 2025) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “The objective of this guideline is to highlight the substances of concern when used in HS and TM and is not meant to be an exhaustive list [essence of chicken not listed in Annex A or B]”
  12. HSA — Health Supplements Guidelines (Jan 2026), clause 4.8 and Tables 4–5 (vitamins and minerals limits) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “HS for use by the general adult population should not contain vitamins and minerals exceeding the stipulated limits stated in Tables 4 and 5”
  13. HSA — Health Supplements Guidelines (Jan 2026), clause 3.1 (working definition and dosage forms) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “HS are presented in dosage forms to be administered in small unit doses such as capsules, softgels, tablets, powders, and liquids. Forms which may be perceived as food or confectionery … would not be appropriate as HS dosage forms”
  14. NTUC FairPrice Singapore — Essence of Chicken & Fish category (iHerb SG has no matching category; FairPrice used per the schema's Watsons/Guardian-style fallback) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Brand's Essence of Chicken - Original … Eu Yan Sang Essence of Chicken - Traditional … New Moon Essence of Black Chicken … Kinohimitsu Essence of Chicken - Original … Polleney Essences Of Black Fish”
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Updated 2026-08-29. Every line above traces to a numbered source. Kozen-X is not a medical device and does not give medical advice. It lists what published sources have written down — nothing more. A pair not listed is unrecorded, not cleared. Before you start, stop or re-time anything, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.