Li Shizhen lived from 1518 to 1593, and was one of China’s most famous doctors. He researched snakes for his massive 52-volume medical textbook, “Compendium of Materia Medica (《本草纲目》běn cǎo gāng mù ),” and found that snakes could be used to “treat stubborn dry scale-like skin diseases, skin eruptions and rashes.”

Today you’ll still find snakes, prized for their medicinal qualities, preserved in liquor barrels. Snake-infused liquor is sold by the glass or the bottle.

At Lao Zhuan Cun, a restaurant in Qingdao, for example, Manager Sui bottles his own liquor, adding a long-nosed pit viper, gutted, to a liter of rice wine. He throws in some ginseng and wolfberries and lets it all sit for a month before selling it at 18 RMB a liang (两liǎng , 50g).

“Many people like it,” says Sui, “especially men.”

Farmer Zhang Changmeng is one of those men. As a child, he suffered from rheumatic arthritis—until he took to drinking snake liquor. Two years later, he was healed and was so impressed he took to TCM studies; then he became a farmer. His crop? Snakes.

Farmer Zhang’s Red Plum Snake Farm, in Sishui County, Shandong Province, now sells 60 tons of snakes a year at 400 RMB a kilo.

“Snake powder not only helps with arthritis,” Farmer Zhang insists, “but also eliminates toxins, clears your skin, and keeps you young.”

To make the powder, first gut and skin the snake, then bake it at a low, steady heat. (You may have to experiment, as the precise time and temperature are closely-guarded trade secrets.) Finally, grind it in a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. But be warned, it’s a pungent treatment.

An easier way to take snake is to have it ground and packaged as a pill. There’s Vitiligo, for acne and other persistent skin problems, and Pure Zaocys, for lower back and leg pain.

For more specific problems, though, you shouldn’t miss the specifics of the snake.

The gallbladder of a Chinese rat snake, for example, is the size of a large soybean and is reported to be great for poor vision. “It is terrific for eyesight,” said Farmer Zhang. He sells fresh ones for about 5 RMB each. You can slice them into small thin pieces, or grind them up.

A snake’s male anatomy, meanwhile, is small, spiky, and apparently genius at warming the kidney and enriching the qi. But, priced at up to 20,000 RMB a kilo, it’s not cheap.