Cobra (Science name: Naja Naja), is a venomouse snake under Elapidae, Squamata. Cobra can be commonly found in the mountains and plains, distributed mainly in Asian countries like India, China, Taiwan, Vietnam… Matured snake can have length approximately about 90-100 cm, some can be as long as 2 metres. Cobra swims well but cannot live in water, has a dark brown, or mono color. Cobra is short-tempered, self-defense aggressively, head rises , upper body straghtening up, hood expands, spits when attacked, but it often flees away when not being teased. Cobra is active at both night and day, main sources of food includes rats, toads, other snakes… The venom of cobras can
kill people in a short time.
Snake parts can all be used as drugs, almost no useless parts. Cobra meat is sweet, salty, neutral, and is consider a medicinal tonic in Eastern medicine. Snake meat has properties like rheumatic effects, nerve stabilizing, easy to be used for neuropathy pain, numb, paralyzed, seizures,sprouting poisonous zits. Snake bile can be combined with many other medications to treat coughing, back pain,hard to treat headaches, or can be used with alcohol to make wine. According to ancient documents, snake corpses after they pelt taste salty and sweets, non-toxic, neutral. Snake corpses also have antiseptic effect, used to treat some dangerous diseases in children, sterilize, treat sore throat, impetigo.
Over the world, especially in Europe, people use snake venom injections or topical ointments to relieve pain from caner, neuritis, neuralgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, joint inflammation, muscle inflammation. Many researches have shown that snake venom have the effect of inhibiting the growth of some types of cancer cells, lower blood pressure in hypertensive patients. In Vietnam, cobra venom has been recently exploited and used as medicine. In highlights is a research from Do Tat Loi, Tran Kien and their colleagues published in the Pharmacogenetics Journal in June 1976, the authors developed a topical ointment from cobra venom combined with other available effective remedies for rheumatic pains in Vietnam for patients with arthritis, bone and joint discomfort and pain.