Witnessed by: TCM
Sea cucumber, of the Holothuroidea (Echinodermata) family. A soft-bodied echinoderm creeping the sea floor, sieving the sediment through a ring of tentacles; native range: the sea floors of the Chinese coasts and the warm Indo-Pacific, from the Yellow Sea south. Globally recognized as hai shen (海參) in Chinese, and sea cucumber, trepang, beche-de-mer in English. The part used is the whole animal (gutted and dried). A shrunken blackish-grey cylinder, hard as wood and stony to the knuckle when dry, rowed with blunt spines or warts; days of soaking swell it back to a slippery, gelatinous, near-tasteless body that takes on whatever it is cooked with.
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.
SEA CUCUMBER
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- sea cucumber
- Family
- Holothuroidea (Echinodermata)
Form
- Part used
- the whole animal (gutted and dried)
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet (甘) · salty (咸)
Temperature
- TCM
- warm (温)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Heart · Kidney
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- tonifies the kidney and boosts essence, nourishes the blood and moistens dryness, and stops bleeding
Cautions
- Contraindications
- loose stools, phlegm-damp, and weak sluggish digestion, which the rich slippery flesh loosens further
- Toxicity
- low toxicity as a food; the ordinary seafood cautions apply — allergy and spoilage
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