Diets and healthy eating 17.01.2018
Dear readers, in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisines, sea cucumber is considered a delicacy, the taste of which is so appreciated by true gourmets. It is served both fresh and as the main ingredient in soups and sauces. Today, my blog reader Yulia Khoroshilova will talk about these sea animals and why they are so popular in Asia. I give her the floor.
Hello, dear readers of Irina’s blog. Many gourmets are interested in a dish made from sea cucumbers. This echinoderm contains no microbes or viruses, so it is considered effective in treating pathologies of the stomach, liver and kidneys. According to research, sea cucumber meat contains substances that have anti-cancer properties.
What is a sea cucumber?
Holothurians, or sea cucumbers, are a class of invertebrate animals such as echinoderms. The Far Eastern sea cucumber and cucumber are varieties of sea cucumbers; they live mainly in the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and Sakhalin. All types of sea cucumbers that are eaten are also called sea cucumbers.
Sea cucumber, depending on the type, can be red, black, or green. This interesting name was given to them by Pliny, and it is due to the fact that when touched, the body of sea cucumbers shrinks and takes the shape of a cucumber. Let's see what a sea cucumber looks like in the photo.
Sea cucumber. Photo
The healing power of sea cucumber is legendary. In Japan, it is called sea ginseng and is credited with unprecedented healing properties.
Composition and calorie content
The calorie content of sea cucumber is quite low - 100 g contains 35 kcal. The composition of the meat of these echinoderms is considered unique, which determines the beneficial properties that it possesses. In addition, it is dietary due to low content fat – 100 g of product contains less than 1 g of fat.
Due to its high protein content, sea cucumber helps maintain muscle tone, has a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin, and fights infectious and inflammatory processes in the body. The tissues of sea cucumber contain a large amount of vitamins B and C, holothurins, chlorine, phosphorus and calcium.
It is reliably known that this product does not contain microbes or viruses, and its cells are sterile.
Niacin
By regularly including sea cucumber in your diet, you provide the body with the necessary amount of niacin. Vitamin B3 (PP) helps against heart disease, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and cognitive disorders.
This substance is also invaluable for cellular communication and gives strength to the body. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, a diet enriched with this product significantly reduces the risk of developing cancer.
Riboflavin
Sea shellfish is rich in vitamin B2, which is an essential water-soluble substance and a participant in many biochemical processes. Riboflavin acts as a transport link that delivers beneficial substances to tissues and organ systems. This is a unique vitamin of beauty and health, so it is recommended to include sea cucumber in your diet. Eastern healers are convinced that it contains the secret of longevity.
Iron
Everyone knows that seafood is rich in iron, which saturates the body with oxygen and normalizes blood circulation. Therefore, the benefit of sea cucumber sea cucumber is that it eliminates the deficiency of a useful microelement and thereby ensures strong immunity.
Beneficial features
On this moment Research on the benefits and contraindications of sea cucumber is quite limited. However, as a result of clinical trials, certain positive impacts, which it is capable of exerting on the body.
Sea cucumber contains neither microbes nor viruses, so this product is considered useful in the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular pathologies, and brain diseases. The product is effective means therapy intestinal infection, acting as an antiviral agent.
In alternative medicine, sea cucumber is used to treat the following problems:
- bowel disorder in the form of constipation;
- erectile dysfunction in men;
- colds;
- periodontitis;
- hypertension;
- elevated cholesterol levels;
- osteoarthritis.
Representatives of traditional medicine are convinced that the main beneficial property of sea cucumber is its ability to slow down the aging process and the development of tumor-like neoplasms of a malignant nature.
Cholesterol control
Along with food, organic lipids enter the body, which are necessary to maintain human health. However, excess cholesterol is in first place among the causes of the development of atherosclerosis, the deposition of plaques in blood vessels.
According to the latest scientific research, sea cucumber helps control the levels of these compounds in the blood. In 2002, an article was published in the journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry, which stated that sea cucumber reduces bad cholesterol while increasing good cholesterol.
Gum health
Based on the results of a study conducted in 2003, scientists found that sea cucumber can be used to produce an extract that, when added to toothpaste Helps eliminate periodontitis - bleeding gums. The experiment involved 28 people with the initial stage of gingivitis, who brushed their teeth daily with a paste containing an extract of sea cucumber.
After three months, the results showed that markers of oral health had noticeably improved: bleeding and gum inflammation decreased, and the unpleasant odor disappeared. However, more research is required to confirm this theory.
Oncological diseases
The established sterility of sea cucumber cells gave rise to the hypothesis that this product can be effectively used for the prevention and treatment of malignant cancer.
In 2010, it was published in Pancreas magazine Research Article, indicating that substances with anti-cancer properties have been found in sea cucumber. The study found that the key compound in sea cucumber, triterpenoid, exhibits pronounced cytotoxicity against carcinoma of the lung, pancreas, breast, colon, leukemia, and prostate.
Many cancer patients who simultaneously use sea cucumber tincture with honey along with chemotherapy have noted a reduction in malignant tumors by 68%.
From this video you will learn about other properties of sea cucumber.
Cautions
Despite the fact that sea cucumber is a source of vitamins and beneficial macro- and microelements for the human body, it is necessary to remember possible contraindications to its use. If you are allergic to seafood, you should avoid using sea cucumbers. This is especially true for pregnant women, whose bodies are most sensitive during this period.
Doctors warn that eating sea cucumber while taking anticoagulants increases the risk of side effects. Patients with hyperfunction thyroid gland should abstain from this iodine-rich product.
Don’t forget how the sea cucumber feeds: waste from other fish, plankton. The mollusk lives on the seabed and filters sand along with various aquatic organisms, which can be poisonous, and all these substances settle in its flesh. It must be remembered that pharmaceutical nutritional supplements have not been tested for safety, which means that it cannot be said that their use will not cause harm.
In Asian cuisine, sea cucumber is also eaten raw, served with grated radish and soy sauce. In Russia, shellfish are boiled, canned or dried for culinary purposes. On Far East Skoblyanka, which is prepared from potatoes, onions, and sea cucumbers, is popular. On supermarket shelves you can also find canned food “Skoblyanka made from cucumaria and fish”.
To improve health, raw sea cucumber is crushed and dried. The resulting mixture is mixed with honey in proportions of 1:5 and left for 7 days. Based on ground sea cucumber, vodka tincture, healing tea and even wine are made.
Since cucumaria scraper is the most popular dish, let's find out how to prepare it.
You will need the following ingredients: sea cucumber, onion, spices, carrots, bell pepper, tomato paste. In Vladivostok, the collected sea cucumber is boiled immediately on the shore in sea water and then cooked at home. But you can also buy it fresh.
Holothuria, sea cucumbers, class of echinoderms. Fossil skeletal plates of holothurians have been known since the Devonian. Body for the most part barrel-shaped or worm-shaped (from several mm to 2 m long), many with an external appendages (tentacles, legs, papillae, sail, etc.), covered with soft skin containing microscopy. skeletal calcareous plates, or spicules, less often completely covered with calcareous plates.
The mouth is at the anterior end of the body, surrounded by a corolla of tentacles. Many are capable of throwing out their insides (evisceration) or autotomizing the back part of the body with subsequent regeneration of lost organs. 5 modern orders, about 1100 species, in the oceans and seas, everywhere; in Russia there are about 100 species, mainly in the Far East. seas. Detritivores. They reproduce by sweeping reproductive products into the water; development with a floating larva (auricularium and doliolaria stages). Some bear young. Object of fishing and aquaculture (sea cucumber). See fig. 14-16 at st. Echinoderms.
Latin name Holothuroidea
At one time, rumors about an unusually tasty food called or sea cucumber flew around almost the whole world.
Nowadays, the global production of these marine animals is more than 10,000 quintals per year. You can taste dishes made from sea cucumbers in our country. In specialized fish stores they appear on sale from time to time, canned or dried. Those who have not yet become addicted to the strange delicacy and are hesitant to buy these sea animals that look like cucumbers with spines, and are also dirty-black in color, can try them at finished form, for example, in the Moscow restaurants “Anchor”, “Ocean”, “Beijing”.
Residents of the Far East do not need to travel across three seas in search of these animals. Echinoderms cucumbers live in the coastal waters of Primorye, Southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. By the way, sea cucumbers are officially called sea cucumbers, or sea capsules. They belong to class of invertebrates
, typeechinoderms
(Holothurioidea). Off the Soviet shores of Dalny
East meets Far Eastern sea cucumber -sea cucumber(sea cucumber
Stichopus japonicus), reaching 40 cm in length.
They live mainly on the bottom of the sea and are always half asleep: they move slowly, slowly eat plankton, and after spawning they freeze for a long time, falling into summer hibernation from July to September. One-year-old sea egg capsules weighing no more than 50 g are collected on the sea shallows. Adults, three- and four-year-old animals prefer greater depths - up to 40 m.
Sea cucumbers settle in calm coves and bays with a rocky-sandy bottom. It’s not easy to get adults out of there,
but the result is more noticeable: a four-year-old individual is seven to eight times heavier than a baby, and its meat tastes better.
In the Far East, sea cucumbers have long been considered one of the most delicious and tender food products. And as familiar and beloved as mushrooms for residents middle zone. Connoisseurs of oriental dishes recognize sea cucumbers in any sauces and marinades, in dishes consisting of many components. The meat of these sea animals has one interesting feature: under the influence of sea cucumbers, some products acquire a peculiar piquant taste, while others, having lost their pronounced individual properties, appear in a completely new quality. Sea cucumbers themselves, in combination with other products, can endlessly change their taste characteristics. In the rich and unique cuisine of the Chinese, Japanese, Malays and Filipinos, there is no worthy replacement for sea cucumbers. They are eaten fresh and stored for future use: frozen, boiled, and then dried, or boiled, salted and then dried and, of course, canned - in their own juice, in oil, in tomato or with vegetables and seaweed.
Harvesting sea cucumbers is not an easy task; you need to know when and how to get them. The nutritional value of sea cucumbers varies greatly depending on what time of year they are caught. Drying is one of the best ways to prepare sea egg pods. Dry them on outdoors or in artificial conditions at low temperatures. To prevent the meat from spoiling and losing its taste at this time, sea cucumbers are rolled in crushed charcoal. That’s why dried sea cucumbers look so unsightly that they often scare off uninformed buyers.
Trepangs are not only tasty, but also a healthy product: nutritious and medicinal. Sea cucumber meat contains valuable proteins, mineral salts of phosphorus, calcium, many trace elements and vitamins B, B2, B12 and C. (In addition, it, like
meat of other marine animals contains organic iodine compounds; they are absorbed by the body much more fully than its inorganic compounds.) That is why oriental healers have long advised eating sea cucumber meat for those who are weakened by serious illnesses, severe nervous shock and physical overload. Modern doctors also sometimes recommend eating sea cucumbers to patients, for example, to those who suffer from thyroid dysfunction, atherosclerosis, or certain cardiovascular diseases. The same doctors claim that sea egg pods have healing effect and on healthy body, increasing its protective functions. In addition, according to experts, eating sea cucumbers quickly relieves fatigue. It is not surprising, therefore, that in oriental medicine this organism is often called sea ginseng...
What is the secret of the unusual ability of sea cucumbers to be surprisingly combined with a wide variety of products? The fact is that sea cucumbers do not have their own distinct taste. Sea cucumber resembles chicken scallops or boletus, boiled without salt and spices. This is probably why the pulp of sea cucumbers, under the influence of other products, easily transforms itself and very subtly changes the taste of everything to which it is added. Some time ago, for the prepared foods department, we prepared steaks to which we added some sea cucumbers. It turned out the same, familiar minced meat, but more tender and juicy. In any dish they are just an additive, they always play a supporting role. Moreover, this does not depend on how much sea cucumber gets into one serving. For example, when preparing sea cucumbers with chicken, only 75 g of meat is used, and sea cucumbers -. 100 g, and yet sea cucumber is considered an additive, and not vice versa
How do you feel about them, they always give me pleasure, is this a very tasty addition to sea cucumber dishes? and satisfying food, and with all its satiety, it never gives you the feeling that you have overeaten. And yet I will be objective. The famous sea cucumbers have a drawback (in my opinion, the only one): as they say, “they didn’t come out face-first.” You need either a certain habit or a great interest in exotic things to decide to add these strange gelatinous pieces with soft lumps of needles to your food the first time. And a few years ago, when sea pods, black with charcoal, appeared on store shelves, many buyers avoided this product. Those whose curiosity prevailed over prejudice, although they bought, did not know at all what to do with it. The phones in our restaurant were ringing non-stop then. And sea cucumbers are not the only seafood product about which people know very little. Therefore, I am a big supporter of promoting seafood as actively as possible.
How do restaurant visitors feel about dishes made from them?
In a restaurant, no one has to be encouraged to eat sea pods. Despite the apparent lack of information about the product, more than a hundred visitors order sea cucumber dishes every day
What place is given to sea cucumbers on the restaurant menu?
A wide variety of food is prepared with them: hot and cold appetizers, first and second courses. It is sea cucumbers, along with jellyfish, shrimp, young bamboo shoots, as well as with spices characteristic of the East, soybean and sesame oil, that make it possible to create the original and, I would say, unique cuisine for which Beijing has long been famous.
Chinese or Japanese dishes
Homemade recipes
Despite the apparent simplicity of your request, it is unlikely that I will be able to fulfill it properly. National cuisine is considered national because the use of each product in it is deeply traditional. In our country, many ingredients that are used in China or Japan are not available for sale. Even replacing Chinese allspice with all the black allspice we know will disrupt the taste “sound” of a particular dish. Or, for example, what to replace young bamboo shoots with? Inexpressive in taste, crispy, dense, resistant to long cooking, they also add a special uniqueness to food. There is nothing similar in our kitchen. Any arbitrary replacement will change both the taste and appearance of the dish so much that it will not correspond to the standard, and then it cannot be considered real oriental dish. And yet you can come up with something...
Two dishes from the Beijing restaurant These two recipes were created by Yu. D. Zakharov based on Chinese national cuisine. But first, about what to do with black dried sea cucumbers. Cooking any dish from them begins with thorough washing to remove charcoal powder. Clean sea cucumbers should be soaked in cold water for 25-30 hours; the water must be changed several times. An incision is made along the abdomen of the soaked sea cucumber and the intestines are removed through it, then washed well again. After
These sea cucumbers are set to cook. Cook over low heat for 3-4 hours. Boiled sea pods are transparent and resemble sturgeon cartilage. Now they are ready to eat.
Broth with sea cucumbers
First, prepare chicken broth with onions, carrots and roots, as usual. The chicken is then removed from the pan. Chicken meat is cut into slices and placed on plates. Boiled sea cucumbers cut into slices and pieces are also placed there. fresh cucumber
(regular); All this is poured with hot broth and served to the table.
For one serving you should take: chicken meat - 75 g, boiled sea cucumbers - 50 g, fresh cucumber slices - 30 g.
Trepang with chicken and pork
Boiled sea cucumbers and chicken meat (or pork) are cut into slices and placed in a saucepan or frying pan, after which they are poured with broth, to which salt and spices are added to taste: cinnamon, pepper, green parsley (or its root) and celery. The contents of the pan are allowed to boil. Starch diluted in cold water is poured into the boiling broth, then everything is brought to a boil again. As soon as the liquid thickens, remove the pan from the heat. Before serving, add another 5 g of butter or vegetable oil to each plate. The oil must be dosed accurately, as too much fat can cause them to fall apart.
For one serving you should take 100 g of boiled sea cucumber and 75 g of meat.
And besides, you can add them to a variety of dishes at your discretion or simply cook them with mayonnaise, like hard-boiled eggs.
Gallery
Irina Kamshilina
Cooking for someone is much more pleasant than cooking for yourself))
Content
Marine fauna is rich in various living organisms, many of which are used as food. One of them is the sea cucumber (holothurian), a class of which includes more than 1000 species. They vary in appearance (size, color, body length, etc.), and some are even used for cooking. Mollusks have a number of useful medicinal properties, and medicinal preparations are even made from sea cucumber extracts.
What is a sea cucumber
Such a representative of the fauna as the sea cucumber is a class of invertebrate animals, such as echinoderms. They are also called sea capsules and sea cucumbers. The sea cucumber looks like a large oblong worm or caterpillar. Depending on the species, the body of these mollusks can be smooth or rough (with short and long growths). The color of sea cucumbers is red, green, gray, brown and black. Their size varies from 0.5 cm to 5 m. Holothuria can be found both in deep depressions and in the coastal part of the ocean, and more often near coral reefs.
Lifestyle
The marine animal feeds on plankton or organic debris, which it extracts from the bottom sand and passes through the digestive system. Some species of sea cucumbers have tentacles used to filter the food they detect. Shellfish lead sedentary lifestyle life, spending most of the time on one side, with the mouth raised. Animals crawl very slowly, sometimes contracting, sometimes stretching.
Types of sea cucumbers
Today, the class of holothurians includes about 1,150 species of animals, differing in size, weight, color, body structure, and habitat. Sea urchins and stars are the closest relatives of sea cucumbers. There are more than 100 species of such mollusks in Russia, but the most popular sea cucumbers are Far Eastern sea cucumber and cucumber, which are used in the preparation of tasty and healthy treats.
Useful properties of sea cucumbers
Representatives of sea cucumbers have many beneficial properties thanks to dietary sterile meat, devoid of viruses and various diseases, but rich in iodine, calcium, phosphorus, amino acids, iron, copper, nickel, chlorine, vitamins B, C. The calorie content of the shellfish is only 35 kcal per 100 g. Scientists note the following points of the therapeutic effect of sea cucumbers on the human body:
- decrease in blood pressure;
- stimulation of the heart muscle;
- acceleration of tissue renewal;
- normalization of metabolic processes;
- relief from bradycardia, tachycardia;
- treatment of arthritis, relief of joint pain;
- strengthening the immune system;
- improving the functioning of the nervous and cardiovascular systems.
Using sea cucumber as food
It is not difficult to prepare sea cucumber; the main thing is to carry out a number of activities to pre-prepare the mollusk. First, it is washed thoroughly until the black powder completely disappears. Next, the carcass is soaked in water, which is changed several times, and then boiled for at least 3 hours. The Japanese prefer to eat the delicious sea cucumber meat raw, since this way it retains more nutrients.
Many different things are prepared from sea cucumber delicious snacks, it is fried, boiled, dried, and made into canned shellfish. Shellfish meat is used as the main component of some soups and cutlets. Experienced cooks argue that sea cucumbers must be cooked with other products that have a pronounced aroma and absorb unpleasant odors. Egg pod meat should not be eaten by pregnant or lactating women, children, allergy sufferers, or people with hyperthyroidism.
Sea Cucumber Recipes
Sea pod as a food product is often used in Asian cuisine. To prepare seafood, different heat treatment methods are used. You can buy shellfish at large grocery stores and turn it into a rich dish. big amount useful vitamins and microelements. If you don't know how to cook sea cucumber, use detailed tutorials with photos that will teach you how to properly clean, prepare and cook sea cucumber.
Sea cucumber scraper
- Time: 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Number of servings: 8 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 154 kcal per 100 g.
- Purpose: for breakfast, lunch, dinner.
- Difficulty: easy.
One of the dishes of Old Russian cuisine that has been forgotten is skoblyanka. It was prepared from potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables, but in the Far East the mushrooms were replaced with sea cucumber meat. This shellfish contains much more vitamins and microminerals than fish, so the beneficial properties of the scraper are very great. If you purchased fresh sea cucumber, you must first gut it, wash it, then boil it twice for half an hour in water. Then change the water again and cook the shellfish for about 2 hours.
Ingredients:
- sea cucumber – 6 pcs.;
- pork – 0.5 kg;
- onions – 3 pcs.;
- carrots, tomatoes - 1 pc.;
- vegetable oil – 50 ml;
- tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.;
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- greens – 0.5 bunch;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Cut the seafood into strips, fry in a cauldron for about 15 minutes, then add pork, chopped in the same way.
- While the seafood and meat are fried, chop the onion into half rings and the carrots into thin strips. Add to meat and seafood. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Chop the tomato into small cubes, add to the cauldron, add salt and pepper, and stir.
- Pour in ½ tbsp. water, simmer over low heat under the lid for 15 minutes.
- Squeeze the garlic, chop and add the herbs, stir, remove from heat.
Sea cucumber with honey
- Time: 16 days.
- Number of servings: 200 persons.
- Calorie content of the dish: 496 kcal per 100 g.
- Purpose: medicine.
- Difficulty: easy.
Sea cucumber with honey is used as an alternative medicine used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. The tincture recipe originated in China, and is famous for the following properties: eliminating inflammation, stimulating tissue regeneration, slowing down development cancerous tumors, improving the functioning of the endocrine system, restoring vision, removing waste, toxins, removing cholesterol plaques, etc. Take the finished extract, 1 tsp. half an hour before meals twice a day for a month.
Ingredients:
- dried sea cucumber – 100 g;
- alcohol (40%) – 1 l;
- honey – 1 kg.
Cooking method:
- Fill the dried seafood with water so that the liquid completely covers the product, leave for a day, and then grind it (you can put it through a meat grinder).
- Mix crushed sea cucumbers with alcohol and leave to infuse for 15 days in a dark, dry, cool place, shaking occasionally.
- Combine the prepared tincture with honey and stir thoroughly.
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (Holothurians). These are marine animals with a leathery shell and an elongated body containing one branched gonad. Sea cucumbers live on the seabed. The number of sea cucumber species worldwide is approximately 1,717, with the largest number found in the Asia-Pacific region. Many are harvested for human consumption, and some species are farmed in aquaculture systems. The harvested product is called differently - sea cucumber, bêche-de-mer or balat. Sea cucumbers playing important role in the marine ecosystem as they help recycle nutrients, break down detritus and other organic matter, after which bacteria can continue the decay process. Like all echinoderms, just below the skin, sea cucumbers have an endoskeleton, calcified structures that are usually reduced to isolated microscopic ossicles (or sclerieta) bound by connective tissue. In some species, they can sometimes be enlarged into flattened plates, forming a protective covering. In pelagic species such as Pelagothuria natatrix (order Elasipodida, family Pelagothuriidae), the skeleton and calcium ring are absent. Sea cucumbers are so named because of their resemblance to cucumber fruits.
Review
Most sea cucumbers, as their name suggests, have a soft and cylindrical body, more or less elongated, rounded and sometimes fuller in the limbs and usually without hard appendages. Their shape ranges from almost spherical in the "sea apples" (genus Pseudocolochirus) to serpentine in Apodida, or classic shape sausages, while others look like caterpillars. “The mouth is surrounded by tentacles that can be retracted into the animal.” Holothurians are usually from 10 to 30 centimeters in length, however, species measuring a few millimeters in size (Rhabdomolgus ruber) and up to more than 3 meters in length (Synapta maculate) are found. The largest American species, Holothuria floridana, which lives in abundance just below low water mark on the reefs of Florida, has a well volume of more than 500 cubic centimeters and a length of 25-30 cm. Most of them have five rows of tube feet, except the species Apodida, which moves by crawling ; the legs may be smooth or with fleshy appendages (for example, Thelenota ananas). The legs on the dorsal surface usually do not serve for movement and turn into papillae. A rounded mouth opens at one end, usually surrounded by a crown of tentacles, which can be very complex in some species (and they are actually modified legs); anus - retrodorsal. Holothurians do not look like other echinoderms at first glance, due to their tubular body, without a visible skeleton or rigid appendages. In addition, the fivefold symmetry, classic for echinoderms, although structurally preserved, is here doubled through bilateral symmetry, which makes them similar to chordates. However, central symmetry is still observed in some species through five "radii" that extend from the mouth to the anus (just like sea urchins), to which tube feet are attached. Thus, these animals do not have any "front" or "dorsal" face, like starfish and other echinoderms, but the animal stands on one of its sides, and this face is called trivium (with three rows of tube feet), and the dorsal face called bivium. A remarkable feature of these animals is the “trapping” collagen that forms their body wall. It can be loosened and tightened at will, and if an animal wants to squeeze through a small gap, it can significantly compress its body. To keep itself safe in these cracks and cracks, the sea cucumber uses all of its collagen fibers to harden its body again. The most common way to separate subclasses is by the appearance of their oral tentacles. The order Apodida has a thin and elongated body, without tube feet, and up to 25 simple or feathery oral tentacles. Aspidochirotida are the most common sea cucumbers with strong body and 10-30 leaf-shaped or shield-shaped oral tentacles. Dendrochirotida are biofilter feeders with plump bodies and 8-30 branched oral tentacles (which can be extremely long and complex).
Anatomy
Sea cucumbers are typically between 10 and 30 cm long, although the smallest known species is only 3 mm long and the largest can reach three meters. The body can be almost spherical or worm-like, without legs, like many other echinoderms, such as the starfish. The anterior end of the animal, containing the mouth, corresponds to the oral pole of other echinoderms (which, in most cases, represents bottom part), and the posterior end, containing the anus, corresponds to the dorsal pole. Thus, compared to other echinoderms, sea cucumbers can be said to lie on one side.
Body structure
The body of the holothurian is approximately cylindrical. It is radially symmetrical along the longitudinal axis and has weak bilateral symmetry transversely with the dorsal and ventral surface. Like other echinozoans, holothurians have five ambulacra separated by five ambulacral grooves, the mesambulacrum. The ambulacral grooves contain four rows of legs, but these are smaller or absent in some holothurians, especially on the dorsal surface. Two dorsal ambulacra make up the bivium, and three ventral ones make up the trivium. At the anterior end, the mouth is surrounded by a ring of tentacles that usually retract into the mouth. These are modified tube feet that can be simple, branched or tree-like. These are known as the proboscis, and at the back there is an inner ring of large calcium bones. Attached to them are five strips of muscles that run longitudinally along the ambulacra inside. There are also circular muscles, the contraction of which causes the animal to lengthen and the trunk to expand. In front of the bones lie further muscles, the contraction of which causes the trunk to retract. The body wall is composed of epidermis and dermis and contains smaller calcified ossicles, the types of which are characteristics that help identify different types. Inside the body wall is a secondary cavity divided by three longitudinal mesenteries that surround and support the internal organs.
Digestive system
Behind the mouth is the pharynx, surrounded by a ring of ten calcified plates. In most sea cucumbers, this is the only important part of the skeleton, and it forms the attachment point for the muscles that can retract the tentacles into the body for safety, as for the major muscles of the body wall. Many species have an esophagus and stomach, but some have pharynxes that open directly into the intestines. The intestine is usually long and coiled, and passes three times through the body to the cloacular chamber or directly into the anus.
Nervous system
Sea cucumbers do not have a true brain. A ring of nerve tissue surrounds the oral cavity and directs nerves to the tentacles and pharynx. The animal, however, is quite capable of functioning and moving if the nerve ring is surgically removed, suggesting that the ring does not play a central role in neural coordination. In addition, five major nerves run from the nerve ring along the length of the body under each of the ambulacral regions. Most sea cucumbers do not have distinct sensory organs, although they do have various nerve endings scattered throughout the skin, giving the animal a sense of touch and sensitivity to the presence of light. However, there are a few exceptions; Members of the order Apodida are known to have statocysts, while some species possess small eyespots near the bases of their tentacles.
Respiratory system
Sea cucumbers extract oxygen from the water in a pair of "respiratory trees" that branch into a cloaca just inside the anus, so they "breathe" by drawing water in through the anus and then expelling it. The trees consist of a series of narrow tubes branching from a common duct and are located on either side of the digestive tract. Gas exchange occurs through the thin walls of the tubules, into and out of the fluid of the main body cavity. Together with the intestines, the respiratory trees also act as excretory organs, with nitrogenous wastes being distributed along the walls of the tubules in the form of ammonia and phagocytic coelomocytes depositing the waste as particulates.
Circulatory systems
Like all echinoderms, sea cucumbers have both an ambulacral system, which provides hydraulic pressure to the tentacles and tube feet that allow them to move, and a hemal system. The latter is more complex than that of other echinoderms, and consists of well-developed vessels, as well as open sinuses. The central gemmal ring surrounds the pharynx adjacent to the annular canal of the ambulacral system and sends additional vessels along the radial canals beneath the ambulacral areas. In larger species, additional vessels flow above and below the intestines and are connected by more than a hundred small muscular ampoules that act like miniature hearts, pumping blood around the hemal system. Additional vessels surround the water lungs, although they connect them only indirectly, through the coelomic fluid. In fact, the blood itself is essentially identical to the coelomic fluid that directly bathes the organs and also fills the ambulacral system. Phagocytic coelomocytes, somewhat similar in function to the leukocytes of vertebrates, are formed within the hemal vessels and pass throughout the body cavity, as well as to both circulatory systems. An additional form of coelomocyte, not found in other echinoderms, has a flattened discoid shape and contains hemoglobin. As a result, in many (though not all) species, the blood and coelomic fluid are colored red. High concentrations of vanadium were found in the blood of sea cucumbers, but researchers were unable to reproduce these results.
Motor organs
Like all echinoderms, sea cucumbers have pentaradial symmetry. However, due to their body position, they have secondarily developed some degree of bilateral symmetry. For example, since one side of the body is usually pressed against a surface and the other is not, there is usually a difference between the two surfaces (except in Apodida species). Like sea urchins, most sea cucumbers have five striped ambulacral regions running the length of the body from the mouth to anus. The three ambulacral areas on the lower surface have numerous tube feet, often with suckers, which allow the animal to crawl; they are called trivium. Two areas on the upper surface have underdeveloped or vestigial tube feet, and some species have no tube feet at all; this face is called the bivium. In some species, the ambulacral areas can no longer be distinguished, with the tube feet extending over a much wider area of the body. Species of Apodida have no tube feet or ambulacral regions at all and move by muscular contractions of the body, like worms, however, they typically have five ray lines running along their body. Even sea cucumbers, which do not have the usual tube feet, have feet around the mouth. They are modified into contractile tentacles much larger than tube feet for locomotion. Depending on the species, sea cucumbers have between ten and thirty of these tentacles, and they can have a wide variety of shapes depending on the animal's diet and other factors. Many sea cucumbers have papillae, conical fleshy projections of the body wall with sensory tube feet at the tops. They can even develop into long antenna-like structures, especially in the abyssal genus Scotoplanes.
Endoskeleton
Echinoderms usually have internal skeleton, consisting of plates of calcium carbonate. However, in most sea cucumbers these plates have shrunk to microscopic bones under the skin. A few genera, such as Sphaerothuria, retain relatively large plates.
Life history and behavior
Habitat
Sea cucumbers in large quantities found in the deep sea, where they often make up the majority of animal biomass. At depths greater than 8.9 km, sea cucumbers make up 90% of the total macrofauna. Sea cucumbers form large schools that move across the deep ocean, hunting for food. The body of some deep-sea holothurians, such as Enypniastes eximia, Peniagone leander and Paelopatides confundens, consists of tough gelatinous tissue with unique properties that allows the animals to control their buoyancy, allowing them to either live on the ocean floor, actively swim, or move to new places. Holothurians appear to be the best-adapted echinoderms to extreme depths and are still very common at depths greater than 5,000 m. Several species are from the family Elpidiidae (" porpoises") can live at depths of more than 9,500 m, and some species of the genus Myriotrochus (in particular, Myriotrochus bruuni) live at depths of up to 10,687 meters. In shallower waters, sea cucumbers can form dense populations. The New Zealand strawberry sea cucumber (Squamocnus brevidentis) lives on rocky cliffs along south coast South Island, where its populations sometimes reach densities of 1,000 animals per square meter. For this reason, one such area in Fiordland is called the "strawberry fields".
Movement
Some abyssal species in the abyssal order Elasipodida have evolved to "benthopelagic" behavior: their body is almost as dense as the water around them, so that they can make long (up to 1000 m) jumps before slowly sinking to the ocean floor. Most of them have specific swimming appendages, such as an umbrella (for example, Enypniastes) or a long projection on the body (Psychropotes). Only one species is known to be a true, completely pelagic species that never approaches the bottom - Pelagothuria natatrix.
Diet
Holothurians are typically scavengers, feeding on debris in the benthic zone of the ocean. Exceptions include some pelagic cucumbers and the species Rynkatorpa pawsoni, which have a symbiotic relationship with deep-sea monkfish. The diet of most sea cucumbers consists of plankton and decaying organic matter found in the sea. Some sea cucumbers catch food that flows near their exposed tentacles. They also sift through sediment using their tentacles. Other species may burrow through the lower mud or sand until they are completely underground. They then extend their feeding tentacles, ready to escape at any sign of danger. In the South Pacific, sea cucumbers can occur at densities of 40 individuals per square meter. These populations can process 19 kilograms of sediment per square meter per year. The shape of the tentacles is usually adapted to the diet and size of the particles consumed: biofilters generally have complex tree-like tentacles designed to maximize the surface area available for filtration, while substrate-feeding species most often require finger-like tentacles for sorting nutritious material; detrital species that live in fine sand or mud most often require shorter, "toothed" tentacles shaped like scoops. One individual can ingest more than 45 kg of sediment per year. The outstanding digestive abilities of sea cucumbers allow them to reject finer, cleaner and more uniform sediment. Therefore, sea cucumbers play an important role in the biological treatment of the seabed (bioturbation, scavenging, substrate homogenization, etc.).
Communication
Sea cucumbers communicate with each other by transmitting hormonal signals through the water. The main purpose of communication is reproduction; otherwise, individuals tend to ignore each other. Sea cucumbers do not exhibit territorialism. Some species, including abyssal species such as porpoises (Scotoplanes globosa), can live in groups.
Reproduction
Most sea cucumbers reproduce by releasing sperm and eggs into the ocean water. Depending on conditions, a single organism can produce thousands of gametes. Sea cucumbers are typically dioecious, with separate male and female female bodies, but some species are protandrous. Reproductive system consists of a single gonad, consisting of a cluster of tubules flowing into a single canal, which opens on the upper surface of the animal, next to the tentacles. At least 30 species, including Pseudocnella insolens, fertilize their eggs internally and then pick up the fertilized zygote with one of their tentacles. The egg is then inserted into a pouch on the body adult, where the fruit develops and eventually emerges from the sac. Several species are known to breed in body cavities and give birth through a small tear in the body wall, near the anus.
Development
In all other species, the egg develops into a larva, which is free-swimming, usually after about three days of development. The first stage of larval development is known as auricularia (the larva is about 1 mm long). Such a larva swims with the help of a long strip of cilia wrapped around its body, and somewhat resembles a bipinnaria (starfish larva). As the larva grows, it develops into a doliolaria with a barrel-shaped body and three to five individual rings of cilia. "Pentacular" is the third larval stage of the sea cucumber, in which the tentacles appear. The tentacles are usually the first features of the adult to appear before the normal tube legs.
Symbiosis and commensalism
Predators and defense mechanisms
Marine predators often refuse to eat sea cucumbers due to the toxins they contain (particularly holothurin) and their impressive defense mechanisms. However, they remain prey for some highly specialized predators that are not affected by their toxins, such as large clams Tonna galea and Tonna perdix, which paralyze sea cucumbers using a powerful poison before swallowing them completely. Some other, less specialized and opportunistic predators may also prey on sea cucumbers if they cannot find more suitable food, such as certain types of fish (triggerfish, puffer fish) and crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, hermit crabs). Some species of coral sea cucumbers in the order Aspidochirotida can defend themselves by expelling their sticky Cuvier tubes (extensions of aquatic lungs that float freely in the coelom) to entangle potential predators. When sea cucumbers are startled, they may expel some tubes through a tear in the cloaca wall in an autonomous process known as emptying. Replacement tubes grow within one and a half to five weeks, depending on the type. The release of these tubes can also be accompanied by the release of a toxic chemical known as holothurin, which has properties similar to soap. This chemical can kill animals in the surrounding area and is another method of protecting sea cucumbers.
Aestivation
If water temperatures become too warm, some species of sea cucumber from temperate seas may go into summer hibernation. While they are in this state of rest, they stop feeding, their intestines atrophy, their metabolism slows, and they lose weight. The body returns to its normal state when conditions improve.
Phylogeny and classification
Holothurians do not have a skeleton like other echinoderms and their classification is more complex, with their paleontological phylogeny relying on a number of well-preserved specimens. Modern taxonomy is based primarily on the presence or shape of certain soft parts (legs, lungs, tentacles) to determine the major orders and, secondly, on microscopic examination of the ossicles to determine the genus and species. Modern genetic methods contributed significantly to the development of the classification of these animals. Taxonomic classification, in accordance with the World Register of Marine Species:
Squad Apodida (Brandt, 1835)
Family Chiridotidae (Östergren, 1898)
Family Myriotrochidae (Théel, 1877)
Family Synaptidae (Burmeister, 1837)
Squad Aspidochirotida (Grube, 1840)
Family Holothuriidae (Burmeister, 1837)
Family Mesothuriidae (Smirnov, 2012)
Family Stichopodidae (Haeckel, 1896)
Family Synallactidae (Ludwig, 1894)
Squad Dendrochirotida (Grube, 1840)
Family Cucumariidae (Ludwig, 1894)
Family Cucumellidae (Thandar and Arumugam, 2011)
Family Heterothyonidae (Pawson, 1970)
Family Paracucumidae (Pawson and Fell, 1965)
Family Phyllophoridae (Östergren, 1907)
Family Placothuriidae (Pawson & Fell, 1965)
Family Psolidae (Burmeister, 1837)
Family Rhopalodinidae (Théel, 1886)
Family Sclerodactylidae (Panning, 1949)
Family Vaneyellidae (Pawson and Fell, 1965)
Family Ypsilothuriidae (Heding, 1942)
Squad Elasipodida (Théel, 1882)
Family Deimatidae (Théel, 1882)
Family Elpidiidae (Théel, 1882)
Family Laetmogonidae (Ekman, 1926)
Family Pelagothuriidae (Ludwig, 1893)
Family Psychropotidae (Théel, 1882)
Squad Molpadida (Haeckel, 1896)
Family Caudinidae (Heding, 1931)
Family Eupyrgidae (Semper, 1867)
Family Gephyrothuriidae (Koehler & Vaney, 1905)
Family Molpadiidae (Müller, 1850)
Holothurians: use in cooking and medicine
To supply market demand in Southern China, Makassar sea cucumber fishermen trade with indigenous Australians from Arnhem Land. This is the first recorded example of trade between the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbors. There are many commercially important species of sea cucumber that are harvested and dried for export for use in Chinese cuisine. Some of the most commonly found types in markets include:
Holothuria nobilis
Thelenota pineapples
Actinopyga echinites
Actinopyga palauensis
Holothuria scabra
Holothuria fuscogilva
Actinopyga mauritian
Stichius japonicus
Apostichopus californicus
Acaudina molpadioides
Isostichopus fuscus
Sea cucumber as a food product
Sea cucumbers are marine animals of the class Holothuroidea. They are used in fresh or dried form in various cuisines around the world. In some cultural contexts, sea cucumber is believed to have medicinal value. The animal itself and food product commonly called bêche-de-mer in French, from Portuguese "bicho do mar" (literally "sea worm"), trepang (or tripang) in Indonesian, namako in Japanese, balatan in Tagalog and loli in the Hawaiian Islands. In Malay, sea cucumber is known as gamat. In most cultures in East and Southeast Asia, sea cucumbers are considered a delicacy. Sea cucumber is used in a number of dishes. Common ingredients used in sea cucumber dishes include wax melon, dried scallop, kai-lan, shiitake and bok choy.
Culinary use
Fresh and dried forms of sea cucumber are used in cooking, although its preparation is difficult due to the fact that it is completely tasteless. Suiyuan shidan, a Qing Dynasty Chinese guide to gastronomy, states: “As an ingredient, sea cucumbers have little taste, are full of sand and have a strong fishy smell. For these reasons, they are difficult to cook tasty.” Most of the preparation of a sea cucumber for consumption involves peeling and boiling it, then simmering it in meat broths and extracts to add flavor to each sea cucumber. According to Chinese popular belief, sea cucumber has a positive effect on male sexual health and is an aphrodisiac, as it physically resembles a phallus and uses defense mechanism, similar to ejaculation, because in case of danger it freezes and pushes a stream of water towards the aggressor. Sea cucumber is also believed to protect against tendinitis and arthritis.
Commercial fee
In recent years, the sea cucumber industry in Alaska has expanded due to increased exports of sea cucumber skin and muscle to China. In China, sea cucumbers are sold commercially in artificial ponds. These ponds can reach an area of 400 hectares and satisfy most of the local demand. Wild sea cucumbers are collected by divers and these wild Alaskan sea cucumbers have higher nutritional value and larger size than farmed Chinese sea cucumbers. The larger size and higher nutritional value have allowed Alaskan fisheries to continue to compete for market share despite increased cultivation of native, Chinese sea cucumber. One of Australia's oldest fisheries is the collection of sea cucumbers by divers from around the Coral Sea ( Pacific Ocean, off the coasts of Australia, New Guinea and New Caledonia) in far North Queensland, Torres Strait and Western Australia. In the late 1800s, 400 divers were deployed to collect sea cucumbers in Cooktown, Queensland. Overharvesting of sea cucumbers in the Great Barrier Reef threatens their population. Their popularity as a delicacy in Asian countries poses a serious threat to the order Aspidochirotida.
Crayfish, crabs in the sea. They can be explored and described for an infinite amount of time. Oceanologists never cease to be amazed by their new discoveries.
Some inhabitants live right before our eyes, even under our feet. They hunt, feed, reproduce. And there are species that go far into the depths, where there is no light and, it would seem, no life.
The most incredible creature we are about to meet is the sea cucumber, aka sea cucumber, aka nautical cucumber. Outwardly it looks like a very lazy, overfed, huge worm.
This is a creature that has lived for many millions of years in the expanses of water and has survived more than one historical period. It got its name - sea cucumber - from the philosopher from Rome, Pliny. And, for the first time, several of its types have already been described by Aristotle.
Sea cucumber meat is beneficial for health, so it is very popular in cooking that you even have to breed them in swimming pools. Cooks fry them, dry them, can them, and freeze them.
Marinate and add to salads. When preparing sea cucumber meat, culinary specialists advise adding a lot of spices; it has the ability to absorb all the smells and tastes as much as possible.
Interestingly, the nutritional value of meat does not deteriorate during heat treatment. The Japanese generally eat sea cucumber - cucumaria, exclusively raw, after marinating for five minutes in soy sauce with the addition of garlic.
Considering the flesh of sea cucumbers to be a panacea for all diseases. Sea cucumbers are filled with macro and microelements, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. More than thirty chemical elements from Mindileev's table.
Its meat contains the largest number of useful components, like no other inhabitant depths of the sea, and it is absolutely disinfected; viruses, bacteria and microbes are not familiar to it.
Also, in the sixteenth century, information came to us about unique healing properties of sea cucumber. Now it is used in the pharmaceutical industry. For medical purposes, especially in Japan and China.
Residents of these countries call sea cucumber - ginseng obtained from the sea. This is a natural component for the complete restoration of the human body after serious illnesses and complex surgical interventions.
Helps regenerate human tissue. Improves heart function, normalizes arterial pressure. Stimulates work gastrointestinal tract. Sea cucumber also has certain components that help in treating joints.
Also, incredibly, but true, this animal has the ability to regenerate. This is a similarity to the Phoenix bird, only from the sea. Even if he has less than half of his body left, after a while, it will already be a full-fledged animal. But such recovery will take a lot of time, up to half a year or more.
ABOUT description and characteristics of sea cucumber
Who is he? nautical cucumber? This echinoderm, an invertebrate mollusk that lives only in sea waters. Its closest relatives are the starfish and the sea urchin.
In appearance, he is a natural silkworm caterpillar, slowly and voluntarily crawling along the bottom of the sea. Dark marsh, brown, almost black, sometimes scarlet. Depending on where they live, their colors change.
For example, on a sandy river bottom you can even find blue sea cucumbers. Body sizes are different. Some species are half a centimeter long. And there are also fifty centimeter individuals. The average size of a mollusk is like a matchbox - five, six centimeters wide, and up to twenty cm long. It weighs almost one kilogram.
In the waking calm state, the sea cucumber almost always lies on its side. On its lower part of the body, called the belly, there is a mouth covered with suckers all around its circumference. With the help of them the animal feeds.
It’s like vacuuming everything from the bottom that you can profit from. There can be up to thirty of these suckers. The entire skin of the sea cucumber is tightly covered with limescale. On the back there are pimply formations with small light spines. They have legs that grow along the entire length of the body, in rows.
The body of a sea cucumber has another unique ability to change its density. He becomes rock hard in case he feels his life is in danger. And it can be very elastic if it needs to crawl under some rock for shelter.
Lifestyle and habitat
They call sea cucumbers types of sea cucumbers, living in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, central territories in China and Japan, in southern Sakhalin. There are more than a hundred varieties of them on the territory of Russia.
Sea cucumbers are animals living at a depth of no more than twenty meters. They spend all their time lying at the bottom. They move very little in their lives.
Sea cucumbers live only in salt water. Fresh waters are destructive for them. They love calm water and muddy bottoms. So that in case of danger you can bury yourself in it. Or stick to some stone.
When an echinoderm is attacked by an enemy, the animal may split into several parts while fleeing. Over time, these parts will, of course, recover.
Since these animals do not have lungs, they breathe through the anus. Pumping water into yourself, sifting out oxygen. Some specimens can pump up to seven hundred liters of water through themselves in one hour. Also, sea cucumbers use the anus as a second mouth.
They tolerate temperature changes calmly, and minor minuses do not affect their livelihoods in any way. They also have a positive attitude towards high temperatures in reservoirs.
Even if some mollusk freezes in the ice, and it is gradually warmed up, it will move away and continue to live. These animals live in large schools, forming entire canvases of individuals on the bottom.
Sea cucumber nutrition
Sea cucumbers are those animals that collect and eat all the decaying carrion found at the bottom. Sea cucumber in hunting for plankton, along the way it collects all the silt and sand that comes along the way. Then he passes it all through himself. Therefore, half of its interior consists of soil.
The over-poisoned, so-called food, comes out through the anus. Considering the fact that you won’t be full of sand, a sea cucumber has to absorb great amount land. In just one year of their life, these mollusks pass through themselves up to forty kilograms of sand and silt. Moreover, in the spring their appetite doubles.
Holothurians have sensitive receptors, with the help of which they accurately determine the amount of food located on the seabed. And if the prey is hidden deep in the sand, the sea cucumber will sense this and will bury itself in the ground until it catches the food. And when he feels that there is not enough food, he quickly runs along the tops and collects dead remains.
Sea cucumber reproduction and lifespan
By the third year of their life, sea cucumbers are already sexually mature and ready to reproduce. According to them appearance it is difficult to understand which of them is male and which is female. But they are heterosexual animals.
The mating season begins in late spring and lasts throughout the summer. But there are also species for which the spawning period can occur at any time of the year. Having broken up into pairs, the mollusks get closer to the shore on a hill, or crawl onto stones or onto lying mussels.
When mating has already occurred, they attach their hind legs to some surface with suction cups and raise their heads up. In this bent position they begin to spawn.
This procedure lasts up to three days. And what’s remarkable is in the dark. In one year, a female sea cucumber can lay more than fifty million eggs. These individuals are very prolific.
At the end, the exhausted animals crawl into their chosen shelter and hibernate for almost two months. Having slept and rested, sea cucumbers develop a voracious appetite, and they begin to eat everything.
In the third week of life, in fry, something like suction cups appear around the mouth opening. With their help, they attach themselves to marine vegetation and then grow and develop on it.
And many types of sea cucumbers, females, carry their young on their backs, throwing them towards them with their tail. The cubs also begin to grow pimples on their backs, and small legs on their bellies.
The fry grows up, its body increases, the number of legs is added. He is already becoming like his parents, a mini worm. In the first year they reach small sizes, up to five centimeters. By the end of the second year they grow twice as large and already look like a young adult. Holothurians live eight to ten years.
Currently you can buy sea cucumber no problem. There are entire aquarium farms dedicated to their cultivation. Expensive fish restaurants order whole batches to their kitchens. And by rummaging around on the Internet, you can easily get what you want.
