Sea cucumber is a kind of marine life with a long history in nature, which has lived on the earth for more than 600 million years, appearing in the ocean more than 100 million years before the known primitive fish, which can be called "marine living fossils". They belong to the marine echinoderms and have their tracks from offshore to 10,000-meter trenches.
We all know that sea cucumbers crawl slowly and have no hard shells, so how did it survive in a hostile marine environment? One is that it has a very powerful survival skill - color-changing camouflage [1]. Sea cucumbers can change their body color with environmental changes like chameleons on land, living in darker reef bushes, sea cucumbers will show our common black brown; living in the blue waters near the sea, the sea cucumber body color will appear light blue; and the sea cucumbers living in seaweed bushes will appear green, this survival ability that can change from body color with environmental changes is one of the survival instincts of sea cucumbers, which can avoid predators by camouflage. The second is the excellent escape ability of sea cucumbers - defiling, which is what we commonly call "spitting intestines". When the sea cucumber encounters an enemy attack, it will violently discharge its own internal organs from the body, and quickly escape by means of the recoil force that discharges the internal organs, and the internal organs will become sticky and long in the seawater, which can effectively confuse the sight of the strong enemy, delay time, and some enemies also use the internal organs as food, so that they will not continue to pursue the sea cucumber. Sea cucumbers that have lost their internal organs can grow new internal organs in as little as two months. Not only does the sea cucumber have the ability to regenerate its internal organs, but its body has the same powerful regenerative ability, and some species of sea cucumbers, even if their bodies are only half left, are even torn into three pieces, and in the next few months, each part will gradually grow into a new sea cucumber, which is very similar to earthworms on land.
There are more than 1,700 kinds of sea cucumbers living in the vast oceans of the world, and more than 140 species of sea cucumbers have been found in China, distributed in the four major seas of China, and the main production areas are Shandong, Liaoning, Fujian, Hebei and other coastal provinces. There are about 40 kinds of edible sea cucumbers in the world, and half of the edible sea cucumbers distributed in China's waters account for 20 species, which is an important marine economic resource in China [2]. Sea cucumber is also called sand li, sea rat, etc., because it is covered with rows of thorns, looking like a plump and juicy cucumber, and is also known as "sea cucumber". There are countless marine life in the ocean, compared with the colorful marine life, the appearance of sea cucumber is not beautiful, but the various nutrients it contains are incomparable to ordinary marine life, as a valuable ingredient for longevity, anti-aging and disease prevention, it is vividly called ginseng in the sea, and the name of sea cucumber is also derived.
Imitation ginseng Apostichopus japonicus | kuroshio
As early as the Three Kingdoms period, shen Ying, a Wu national, wrote a record of eating sea cucumbers in the "Chronicle of Foreign Objects in the Sea and Soil"[3]. During the Southern Song Dynasty, sea cucumbers were introduced to the capital city of Lin'an and became an ingredient in court cuisine. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, sea cucumbers became more popular, and thorn ginseng from the north was regarded as a good product.[4] Sea cucumbers have gradually become the first of the "Eight Treasures of Seafood". In modern times, with the continuous development of China's marine aquaculture industry, China has conquered the artificial breeding and breeding technology of sea cucumbers, sowing a certain specification of seedlings in offshore or marine ponds for breeding, sea cucumbers rely on natural bait to grow, after breeding for a certain period of time, after reaching the market specifications, through artificial harvesting to the consumer's table. With the continuous increase of sea cucumber production, modern people can taste the delicious taste of sea cucumber, it can be said that sea cucumber has entered thousands of households and become one of the favorite delicacies of the public.
Burnt sea cucumber | visual China
The reason why sea cucumber is deeply loved by people is inseparable from its nutrition and active ingredients, and Chinese folk have always had the saying of eating sea cucumber winter supplements. Specifically, the sea cucumber is eaten every year on the winter solstice, and the continuous eating of eighty-one days, one per day, can play a role in tonifying the kidneys and strengthening the essence, consolidating the foundation and cultivating the yuan, and not committing a year of old disease [5]. The effect of sea cucumber tonic kidney is very good, especially strong. Sea cucumber edible method is simple, can be eaten raw, the taste is firm, there is no fishy taste; can be boiled soup, add seaweed, eggs, not only rich in nutrition, but also delicious; can be cooked with millet porridge, young and old, excellent tonic effect; can be added to the onion section stir-fry, that is, for the Famous Dish of Lu cuisine - onion roasted sea cucumber, some companies also developed a variety of convenient fast-paced life crowd eating methods according to the current human taste, such as instant sea cucumber, red braised sea cucumber canned, etc., can meet the needs of different consumers. With the deepening of research, researchers have found that sea cucumbers can also treat or assist in the treatment of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis, neurasthenia, aplastic anemia, etc., which has given us a new understanding of this ancient creature from the ocean.
Author: Zhou Hong
bibliography:
Wang Yunxiang. The Mystery of The Longevity of Sea Cucumber[J].Ocean World.1998(3).17-19
LIAO Yulin. Zoology of China, Echinoderms, Sea Cucumber[M].Beijing: Science Press, 1997
[3] Mengyao." The First of a Hundred Supplements" Talk About Sea Cucumber[J].Chinese Food, 2011(15):74-75.
[4] Wang Saishi. Production and consumption of ancient Chinese seafood treasures[J].Ancient and Modern Agriculture, 2003(04):78-89.
[5] Promise. The Chronicle of the Upper Position of Sea Cucumber[J].Qilu Weekly, 2016(01):80.