Tiger Balm
Encyclopedia
Tiger Balm is the trade name for a heat rub
Heat rub
Heat rub is the name for a variety of products intended to relieve the pain of fibrositis, lumbago and muscular aches and strains. They are so named because they produce a feeling of warmth within the muscle of the area they are applied to, typically acting as rubefacients via a counterirritant...

 manufactured and distributed by Haw Par Healthcare
Haw Par Corporation
Haw Par Corporation Limited is involved in healthcare and leisure products. It is the company responsible for Tiger Balm ointment. Its brands include Tiger, Kwan Loong and it also owns and operates weekend and leisure time destinations such as oceanariums and bowling centers.The Haw Par Group...

 in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

.

History

It was originally developed in the 1870s by a herbalist, Aw Chu Kin
Aw Chu Kin
Aw Chu Kin was a Burmese Chinese herbalist. He is best known as the original inventor of Tiger Balm.Aw Chu Kin's father was a Chinese herbology practitioner in Xiamen and an Hakka Chinese with ancestry in Yongding County . Being of a poor background, Aw Chu Kin first immigrated to Singapore where...

, in Rangoon, Burma, who asked his sons Aw Boon Haw
Aw Boon Haw
Aw Boon Haw, OBE was a Burmese Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for introducing Tiger Balm. He was the son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu Kin, with his ancestral home in Yongding County, Fujian Province, China.-Biography:-Business:...

 and Aw Boon Par
Aw Boon Par
Aw Boon Par was a Burmese Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for introducing Tiger Balm.He was the son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu Kin. His father left the business to Boon Par and after Aw Chu Kin's death in 1908, he called his elder brother Aw Boon Haw to run his father's...

 on his deathbed to perfect the product.

Originally named for containing tiger bone, an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine dating back 1,500 years to treat pain, inflammation and to strengthen muscle, Tiger Balm now consists purely of herbal ingredients. Tiger Balm is available in several varieties, the 'cold' Tiger Balm White (which is recommended for use with headaches) and the 'hot' Tiger Balm Red. There is also another version called Tiger Balm Ultra.

From the notes that accompany Tiger Balm:

Tiger Balm is made from a secret herbal formulation that dates back to the times of the Chinese emperors. The Aw brothers, Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, inherited the formulation from their herbalist father who left China. They call it Tiger Balm, after Boon Haw, (whose name in Chinese meant "Tiger") who was instrumental in devising the remarkable selling strategies that made Tiger Balm a household name all over Asia today.

Composition

Ingredient RedWhite
Menthol
Menthol
Menthol is an organic compound made synthetically or obtained from peppermint or other mint oils. It is a waxy, crystalline substance, clear or white in color, which is solid at room temperature and melts slightly above. The main form of menthol occurring in nature is -menthol, which is assigned...

10% 8%
Camphor
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...

11% 11%
Dementhol
Menthol
Menthol is an organic compound made synthetically or obtained from peppermint or other mint oils. It is a waxy, crystalline substance, clear or white in color, which is solid at room temperature and melts slightly above. The main form of menthol occurring in nature is -menthol, which is assigned...

ised mint
Mentha
Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally...

 oil
Essential oil
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...

6% 16%
Cajuput oil
Cajuput oil
Cajeput oil is a volatile oil obtained by distillation from the leaves of the myrtaceous tree Melaleuca leucadendra, and probably other Melaleuca species. The trees yielding the oil are found throughout the Malay archipelago, the Malay Peninsula and over the hotter parts of the Australian...

7% 13%
Clove bud oil 5% 1.5%
Cassia oil 5%  


The remainder is a petroleum jelly
Petroleum jelly
Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white petrolatum or soft paraffin, CAS number 8009-03-8, is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons , originally promoted as a topical ointment for its healing properties...

 and paraffin
Paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...

 base.

The original Tiger Balm Red and Tiger Balm White have 25% of Camphor. A new product named Tiger Balm White HR uses Eucalyptus oil instead of Cajuput oil.

Uses

Tiger Balm is claimed to relieve the following ailments:
  • Headache
    Headache
    A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...

     Rub on temples to relieve pain.
  • Myalgia
    Myalgia
    Myalgia means "muscle pain" and is a symptom of many diseases and disorders. The most common causes are the overuse or over-stretching of a muscle or group of muscles. Myalgia without a traumatic history is often due to viral infections...

      muscular pains.
  • Migraines and headaches of light intensity to moderate.
  • Mosquito
    Mosquito
    Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

     bites: to relieve the itch.
  • Cough
    Cough
    A cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes...

    : to release the respiratory voices, in application on the chest and the back.
  • Stomach ache: rub on stomach to relieve upset stomach.
  • Nasal congestion
    Nasal congestion
    Nasal congestion is the blockage of the nasal passages usually due to membranes lining the nose becoming swollen from inflamed blood vessels. It is also known as nasal blockage, nasal obstruction, blocked nose, stuffy nose, or stuffed up nose.Nasal congestion has many causes and can range from a...

    : place a gob under the nostrils.
  • Interstitial Cystitis
    Interstitial cystitis
    Interstitial cystitis or bladder pain syndrome is a chronic, oftentimes severely debilitating disease of the urinary bladder...

    : cut to size, placed just above the pubic bone, can moderate pain enough to allow patients to sleep better.

Popular culture

In the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 novel Role of Honour
Role of Honour
Role of Honour , first published in 1984, was the fourth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond...

, authored by John Gardner in the 1980s, one of the villain's henchmen whom Bond faces is named Tigerbalm.

Tiger Balm is mentioned in the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book in the trilogy known as the "Millennium series"....

. It is also mentioned in the novel For the Win
For the Win
For The Win is the second young adult science fiction novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. It was released in May 2010. The novel is available free on the author's website as a Creative Commons download, and is also published in traditional paper form by Tor Books.The book is centered around...

.

Gerard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...

 was reported to have instructed Robert DeNiro how to use Tiger Balm and water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 to solve an erection
Erection
Penile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...

 problem while shooting a scene for Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

's 1900
1900 (film)
1900 is a 1976 Italian epic film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Alida Valli, and Burt Lancaster. Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils...

in 1977.

The song "Love Love Love
The Sunset Tree
The Sunset Tree is the ninth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 26, 2005 by 4AD.-Notes:While We Shall All Be Healed focused on Darnielle's years as a teenager involved with other methamphetamine users, The Sunset Tree focuses on his childhood, and a recurring theme is domestic...

" by The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats is an American indie rock band formed in Claremont, CA by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle himself, despite the plural moniker....

 mentions that Sonny Liston
Sonny Liston
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...

 would rub Tiger Balm onto his gloves.

In "Home Insecurity," an episode of The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series that premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on February 16, 2003. The series mixes action and comedy together while it chronicles the adventures of the Venture family: well-meaning but incompetent teenagers Hank and Dean Venture; their...

, villain Baron Ünderbheit discovers his trusted henchmen have betrayed him, and thus forces them into resignation. They are presented with Tiger Balm as a seemingly amicable parting gift, though it turns out to be an omen for Ünderbheit's retaliation for their betrayal, subsequently revealed to be "tiger bombs."

Tiger Balm is sometimes used in the context of BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

 sexual activities to intensify sensation.

See also

External links


The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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