Holothurians As Food and Medicine
To supply the markets of Southern China, Macassan trepangers traded with the Indigenous Australians of Arnhem Land. This Macassan contact with Australia is the first recorded example of trade between the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbours.
There are many commercially important species of sea cucumber that are harvested and dried for export for use in Chinese cuisine as Hoi sam. Some of the more commonly found species in markets include:
- Holothuria scabra
- Holothuria fuscogilva
- Actinopyga mauritiana
- Stichius japonicus
- Parastichopus californicus
- Thelenota ananas
- Acaudina molpadioides
- Isostichopus fuscus
Some varieties of sea cucumber (known as gamat in Malaysia or teripang in Indonesia) are said to have excellent healing properties. There are pharmaceutical companies being built based on gamat. Extracts are prepared and made into oil, cream, or cosmetics. Some products are intended to be taken internally. A single study conducted on an unreported number of mice found intraperitoneal injection of sea cucumber extract to be somewhat effective in high doses (100 mg/kg) against internal pain, but ineffective against externally induced pain. Another study suggested that the sea cucumber contains all the fatty acids necessary to play a potentially active role in tissue repair.
On December 21, 2007, a study published in PLoS Pathogens found that a lectin from Cucumaria echinata impaired the development of the malaria parasite when produced by transgenic mosquitoes.
Read more about this topic: Sea Cucumber
Famous quotes containing the words food and/or medicine:
“That food has always been, and will continue to be, the basis for one of our greater snobbisms does not explain the fact that the attitude toward the food choice of others is becoming more and more heatedly exclusive until it may well turn into one of those forms of bigotry against which gallant little committees are constantly planning campaigns in the cause of justice and decency.”
—Cornelia Otis Skinner (1901–1979)
“We gave ‘em wings to fly and they rained death on us. We gave ‘em a voice to be heard around the world and they preach hatred to poison the minds of nations. Even the medicine we gave them to ease their pain is turned into a vice to enslave half mankind for the profit of a few. Ah, Janet, dear, don’t you see? Every gift that science has given them has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed.”
—Karl Brown (1897–1990)