In fact, though Chinese medicine goes back over 2000 years, it was only at the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Ching (the mid 17th century) that people began to widely come to the conclusion that the nests have nutritional value.
事實上，中藥雖有二千多年的歷史，但根據典籍記載，燕窩真正成為人人皆知、具有療效的滋養補品已是明末清初，「參、茸、燕、桂」才同列四大補品。