Witnessed by: TCM

Mantis egg-case (Tenodera sinensis), of the Mantidae (Insecta) family. The Chinese mantis — a large predatory insect of the Mantidae; the egg-case is the frothed secretion she lays her eggs into, hardened onto a twig; native range: the mantis lays on branches and stems across China and east Asia; the cases on mulberry are the graded drug. Globally recognized as sang piao xiao (桑螵蛸) in Chinese, and mantis egg-case, praying-mantis ootheca in English. The part used is the whole egg-case (ootheca), the eggs killed by steaming. A light, spongy, buff-to-brown purse of layered froth, chambered inside, near weightless, faintly fishy when steamed.

In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.

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