Witnessed by: TCM

Soft-shelled turtle carapace (Pelodiscus sinensis), of the Trionychidae (Reptilia) family. A flat leathery-shelled river turtle with a long snorkel snout; native range: the Chinese soft-shelled turtle of rivers, ponds and paddies across east Asia; heavily farmed for food and for the drug. Globally recognized as bie jia (鱉甲) in Chinese, bekko (鼈甲) in Japanese, and soft-shelled turtle carapace in English. The part used is the carapace — the back shell — with the skin boiled off and dried. An oval greyish-brown plate, leathery at the rim and bony at the centre, lighter than the tortoise plastron, strongly fishy — a smell that sharpens when it is fried in vinegar.

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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