A message about sea cucumbers. Holothuria - medicinal sea cucumber

SEA CUCUMBERS (Holothurioidea)or sea egg pods. Sea capsules, sea cucumbers or sea cucumbers are animals whose body contracts strongly at the slightest touch, after which in many forms it becomes similar to an old capsule or cucumber. About 1,100 species of sea egg-pods are known. The name “sea cucumbers” was given to these animals by Pliny, and the description of some species belongs to Aristotle.

Holothurians are interesting due to their external features, bright colors, interesting lifestyle and some habits; in addition, they have quite a significant economic importance. Over 30 species and varieties of sea cucumbers are used by humans for food. Edible sea cucumbers, often called sea cucumbers, have long been valued as a very nutritious and medicinal dish, so fishing for these animals has been practiced since ancient times.

The main sea cucumber fisheries are concentrated mainly off the coast of Japan and China, in the waters of the Malay Archipelago, off the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and near the Philippine Islands. Less significant fisheries for sea cucumbers are conducted in the Indian Ocean, in the Red Sea, off the coast of America, Africa, Australia and Italy. In the Far Eastern seas, two species of edible sea cucumbers are caught (Stichopus japonicus and Cucumaria japonica), which are used to prepare canned food and dried foods. The musculocutaneous sac of sea cucumbers, which has previously been subjected to long-term processing by boiling, drying, and in some countries, smoking, is most often consumed as food. Broths and stews are prepared from such semi-finished products. In Italy, fishermen eat fried sea cucumbers without subjecting them to complex pre-processing.

In their raw form, edible sea cucumbers are used as food in Japan, where, after removing the entrails, they are cut into slices and seasoned with soy sauce and vinegar. In addition to the skin-muscle sac, residents of Japan and the Pacific Islands use the intestines and gonads of edible sea cucumbers for food, which are more valuable. Some modern European companies produce various canned foods from sea cucumbers, which are in great demand. The world fishery for Stichopus japonicus in 1981 amounted to 8098 million tons. In addition to fishing, holothurian breeding is also practiced, in particular in our Far East. Holothurians are quite large animals, the average size of which is from 10 to 40 cm. However, among them there are also dwarf species, barely reaching a few millimeters, and real giants, whose body length with a relatively small diameter - about 5 cm - can reach 2 m, and sometimes even 5 m. In body shape, holothurians are very different from representatives of other classes of echinoderms. Most of them rather resemble large worms, but some species have an almost cylindrical or spindle-shaped, and sometimes spherical or somewhat flattened body, bearing various outgrowths on the back.

Despite this body shape, in holothurians it is almost always possible to quite clearly distinguish between the dorsal and ventral sides, although their ventral side does not morphologically correspond to that of other bilaterally symmetrical animals. They actually crawl on their sides, with their mouth end first, so the names “ventral” and “dorsal” sides are arbitrary, but quite justified. In many forms, the ventral side is more or less strongly flattened and adapted for crawling. The ventral side includes 3 radii and 2 interradii, which is why it is often called the trivium, and the dorsal side, or bivium, consists of 2 radii and 3 interradii. The location of the legs on the body of sea egg capsules further enhances the difference between the dorsal and ventral sides, since the strongly contractile legs of the trivium, concentrated on the radii or sometimes found on the interradii, are equipped with suckers and serve for the movement of the animal, while the legs of the bivium often lose motor function and are deprived suckers become thinner and already have sensitive functions. There is no separation of the head in holothurians, although in a number of forms, for example, in deep-sea representatives of the order of side-footed holothurians, one can notice some separation of the anterior end from the rest of the body, which is why it is sometimes called the head.

The mouth, devoid of any devices for grinding food and closed by the perioral sphincter, is located at the anterior end of the body or slightly shifted to the ventral side; the anus is placed at the posterior end. In relatively few forms that burrow into mud or attach to rocks, the mouth and anus move to the dorsal side, giving the animal a spherical, flask-shaped or vaulted shape. Very characteristic of all holothurians are the tentacles surrounding the mouth, which are modified ambulacral legs. The number of tentacles ranges from 8 to 30, and their structure varies among representatives of different orders. The tentacles can be tree-like branched and relatively large, covering a large area of ​​water when catching prey, or shorter, shield-shaped, resembling flowers and intended mainly for collecting nutritional material from the surface of the ground, or simple with a different number of finger-like processes, or feathery, helping with burrowing. holothurians into the ground. All of them, like the ambulacral legs, are connected to the canals of the aquifer system and are essential not only for nutrition and movement, but also for touch, and in some cases for breathing.

Another distinctive feature of sea egg pods is the presence of soft skin in most forms. Only a few representatives of the orders of tree-tentacled holothurians and dactylochirotids have an exoskeleton visible to the naked eye in the form of plates that fit tightly to each other and form a kind of shell. The skin skeleton of other holothurians consists of microscopic calcareous plates of a very bizarre and surprisingly beautiful shape. We can find, along with smooth plates containing a small number of holes, openwork “baskets”, “glasses”, “sticks”, “buckles”, “tennis rackets”, “turrets”, “crosses”, “wheels”, “anchors” . In addition to the skin of the body, calcareous plates can be found in the tentacles, perioral membrane, ambulacral legs, and genitals. Only a few species lack calcareous plates, but for most species they are characteristic and play an important role in identification.

The largest skeletal formation is located inside the body of the holothurian and surrounds the pharynx. The pharyngeal calcareous ring of holothurians comes in various shapes: with or without processes, solid or mosaic, etc., but, as a rule, consists of 10 pieces, 5 of which correspond to the radii of the animal, 5 to interradii. In a number of forms, the pharyngeal ring serves as the attachment point for five ribbon-like muscles (retractor muscles), which draw the anterior end of the body inward along with the tentacles. Straightening the anterior end of the body and extending the tentacles is ensured by the action of the other five ribbon-like muscles (protractor muscles) attached to the pharyngeal ring next to the retractors. The musculature of sea egg pods is quite developed and enhances the strength of their integument; the musculocutaneous sac consists of a layer of transverse muscles and five pairs of longitudinal muscle bands located along radii.

With the help of such strong muscles, some holothurians move, burrow into the ground and strongly contract their body at the slightest irritation. The internal structure of sea egg capsules has already been considered when characterizing type A. One should, perhaps, only pay attention to a special protective device - Cuvier's organs, found in certain groups of holothurians, and to special respiratory organs - aquatic lungs. Cuvier's organs are developed in different representatives of the order of thyroid-tentacled holothurians. They are glandular tube-like formations that flow into the extension of the hind intestine - the cloaca. When an animal is irritated, they are able to be thrown out through the cloaca and stick to the irritating object. The aquatic lungs, which are absent in side-footed and legless holothurians, are also connected to the cloaca by a common duct. They are two highly branched trunks located to the left and right of the cloaca and connected to the body wall and intestinal loops by very thin muscular and connective tissue cords. Water lungs can be brightly colored orange and occupy a significant part of the animal's body cavity.

The terminal lateral branches of the pulmonary trunks form thin-walled ampulla-shaped extensions, and quite often the left aqueous lung is entangled in a network of blood vessels. The walls of the aquatic lungs are equipped with highly developed muscles, the relaxation of which leads to the expansion of the lung cavity and the drawing of sea water inward through the cloaca, and the contraction leads to the expulsion of water from the lung. Thus, thanks to the rhythmic contractions and relaxations of the cloaca and aquatic lungs, sea water fills the smallest branches of the latter, and oxygen dissolved in water penetrates through their thin walls into the fluid of the body cavity and is distributed throughout the body. Very often, substances unnecessary to the body are released through the water lungs. The thin walls of the water lungs are easily torn, and amebocytes, loaded with decay products, are expelled. Almost all holothurians are dioecious; hermaphrodites are very rare among them, and most of them are in the order of legless holothurians.

Typically, in hermaphrodites, the gonads first produce male reproductive cells - sperm, and then female reproductive cells - eggs; but there are species in which both male and female reproductive products develop simultaneously in one gonad. For example, Labidoplax buskii (from the order of legless sea cucumbers), living in the northern regions of the Atlantic Ocean, breeds off the coast of Sweden in the fall, from October to December. At this time of year, its hermaphrodite gonad contains equally mature female and male reproductive cells, but each holothurian releases eggs into the water first, and after a day or two, sperm, or vice versa. The release of reproductive products into the water can occur at intervals and in small portions. Numerous observations have shown that sea cucumbers sweep out reproductive products in the evening or at night. Apparently, darkness is a stimulus for spawning. Most often, reproduction occurs in spring or summer and is associated with temperature, but there are species in which mature reproductive products can be found throughout the year, but their maximum development, for example in Holothuria tubulosa, is observed in August or September. The timing of spawning varies not only for different species, but also for the same species if it has a large range.

Thus, the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa, which is very common in the Barents and Kara Seas, breeds in these seas in June - July, and off the coast of Great Britain and Norway in February - March. Typically, the reproductive products are released into the water, where the eggs are fertilized and develop. After their crushing, a free-swimming auricularium larva is formed. Many auricularia are relatively large in size - from 4 to 15 mm. In a number of sea cucumbers, the larvae, before becoming similar to the adult organism, go through one more larval barrel-shaped stage, the doliolaria, and then the last larval stage, called the pentactula. However, not all holothurians develop in this way. Nowadays, over 30 species of sea egg-pods are known that take care of their offspring and bear young. In such species, distributed mainly in cold waters, the free-swimming larval stage is lost and the eggs develop either due to a large amount of yolk or receiving nutrition directly from the mother's body. In the simplest case, eggs and young develop on the surface of the mother's body, for example, under the protection of overgrown skeletal plates, or in swollen skin folds on the back, or simply attached to the crawling sole. Further changes led to the formation of skin depressions, internal brood chambers protruding into the secondary body cavity, and in a number of branched-tentacled and legless holothurians - to the development of juveniles to late stages directly in the body cavity of the female. In all these cases, the sex of the holothurians is easily distinguishable, whereas usually this is almost impossible to do.

Giant California sea cucumber or sea cucumber Parastichopus californicus- a unique natural phenomenon. He uses the anus as a second mouth, despite the fact that he also has a real mouth.

Scientists previously knew that shallow-water marine invertebrates that live off the Pacific coast of North America use the anus for breathing. Since they do not have lungs, they use the water vascular system for breathing. ambulacral system, which consists of many channels running throughout the body. The branched sacs with which sea cucumbers breathe receive oxygen when water is pumped into the anus using the rectal muscles.

Giant sea cucumber

Half-meter-long sea cucumbers, which lead a predominantly sedentary lifestyle and are even permanent homes for some small inhabitants of the seabed, can pump up to 800 milliliters of water every hour. The body of these animals sifts out oxygen from the remaining components of sea water and saturates its cells with it.

Dr. William Jaeckle from Illinois Wesleyan University and Richard Strathmann from the University of Washington decided to study these amazing creatures in more detail.

They found that the system of blood vessels connecting the respiratory branched sacs with the intestines (the so-called rete mirabile), is not intended to transport oxygen to the intestines. From a scientific point of view, it would be more logical to assume that this structure is needed to transfer food from the anus to the intestines, and not vice versa, as is usually the case in animals. Zoologists decided to test their hypothesis.

To confirm their hypothesis, the researchers fed several giant sea cucumbers radioactive algae that contained iron particles. Using this trick, the team was able to trace the entire path that food takes through the echinoderm's body. In addition, radioactive particles accumulate in the part of the body where the opening through which the creatures consume food is located.

The results of the study demonstrated that sea cucumbers feed primarily through the mouth. But high concentrations of radioactive particles and iron were also observed in the structure of the rete mirabile, which proves that sea cucumbers use the anus as a second mouth. It turns out that the anus of these creatures performs three vital functions: respiratory, nutritional and excretory.

Scientists say that studying just one type of sea cucumber does not mean that only they use a bipolar method of feeding. Later, zoologists intend to study other species of echinoderms.

The study was published in the March issue of the journal Invertebrate Biology.

Among the numerous species of sea cucumbers, the most valuable for fishing are sea cucumber and cucumber. Sea cucumber and cucumber are similar in body structure and the chemical composition of the meat. Trepang contains biologically valuable substances (stimulants), for which in Eastern countries it is called the sea root of life (ginseng) and is widely recommended for those suffering from loss of physical strength and increased fatigue. Eating sea cucumber helps strengthen the nervous system. Sea cucumber fishing is carried out in spring and autumn only in the Far East. The caught sea cucumbers are cut up at the fishing site - the abdomen is cut and the entrails are removed. Cleaned sea cucumbers are washed and boiled for 2-3 hours until the meat becomes soft, after which it is used for preparing culinary dishes.

Skoblyanka with sea cucumber in tomato sauce.
Cut the boiled sea cucumbers into small pieces and fry in oil along with onion, flour and tomato paste. Mix everything, put it in a saucepan, add a little water and boil for 10-15 minutes over low heat.
400 g sea cucumbers, 3/4 cup oil, 3 onions, 4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste, 2 tbsp. spoons of flour, 4 tbsp. spoons of water, salt to taste.

Sea cucumbers fried with onions.
Chop the sea cucumbers and onions and fry them separately, then mix, add spices and serve hot. Sprinkle green onions on top.
400 g sea cucumbers, 2 heads of onions, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon allspice, 100 g green onions, salt to taste.

Stewed sea cucumbers.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the boiled sea cucumbers cut into pieces and simmer for 3 minutes. Add milk, salt, pepper and bring almost to a boil. Serve, garnished with red pepper.
250 g sea cucumbers, 4 tbsp. spoons of margarine or vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of milk, black pepper, red pepper, salt to taste.

Sea cucumbers with vegetables.
Cut the boiled sea cucumbers into pieces and fry. Chop fresh cabbage, chop vegetables (potatoes, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes) and mix with sea cucumbers, put in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are ready.
300 g sea cucumber, 1/4 fork fresh white cabbage, 3-4 pcs. potatoes, 1-2 carrots, 1-2 zucchini, 1 glass of oil, 2-3 tomatoes or 2 tbsp. spoons of tomato paste, pepper, sugar, salt to taste.

Trepangs stewed with chicken.
Place the boiled sea cucumbers in a bowl with boiled or fried chicken, season with the prepared sauce and simmer over low heat until cooked.
200-300 g sea cucumbers, 1/2 chicken. For the sauce: 1-2 tbsp. spoons of tomato puree, 1 tbsp. spoon of 3% vinegar, 2 tbsp. spoons of wine (port or Madeira), 2-3 tbsp. tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup meat broth.

Trepangs with horseradish.
Boiled sea cucumbers are cut into slices. Dilute the vinegar with water, add grated horseradish, salt, sugar and bring to a boil. Then pour in boiled, chopped slices of sea cucumber. The dish is served cold.
Boiled sea cucumbers 70, table vinegar 40, grated horseradish 10, sugar 2, salt

Clean the sea cucumber and pour boiling water over it. After about 1 minute, drain the water and cut the sea cucumber into pieces.
Sauce: soy sauce 2 tbsp, garlic 3 cloves (squeeze), mayonnaise 1 tbsp. Mix everything. Very tasty.

Salad with sea cucumber.
Boiled sea cucumbers are cut into small pieces, boiled potatoes are cut into cubes, green peas, chopped eggs are added, lemon juice and salt are added. All products are mixed, then seasoned with mayonnaise and decorated with green salad and egg.
Boiled sea cucumber 80, potatoes 80, egg 0.5 pcs., green peas 40, mayonnaise sauce 40, lemon juice, salt.

Sea cucumbers: appearance

Representatives of the class of holothurians have an elongated, worm-shaped body, similar to a thick caterpillar. They can reach quite large sizes. The largest of them are up to 5 m long.

At one end of the animal’s body there is a mouth opening, at the other there is a powder. The front side of its body is called the oral pole, and the back side is called the aboral pole.

The holothurian's mouth is surrounded by many tentacles that help catch and absorb food. Their length is different. They can be small in size, but in some species they grow very long and branched, forming a whole bush around the mouth.

Leopard sea cucumber

Sea cucumbers move in the same way as most echinoderms, using ambulacral legs that are located on the underside of their body. Swimming species do not have such legs, but move by bending the body.

Usually the color of these sea inhabitants is not too bright; brown, off-white and grayish colors predominate. But sometimes there are also very beautifully colored species.

Holothurians: way of life

Most representatives of the class of holothurians are bottom dwellers. They crawl along the bottom and even burrow into the ground, looking for food: organic remains and small planktonic organisms. These animals move slowly.

Some species lead an almost immobile lifestyle. They are called tree-tentacled ( Dendrochirota), as they catch food with the help of their highly branched tentacles.

Planktonic species swim in the water column. They do not have legs for movement, but are shaped like a disk with several outgrowths along the edges. They live up to 10 years.

Holothurian class: internal structure

The skeleton of these animals consists of individual small calcareous inclusions of various shapes. A calcareous ring is formed around the pharynx, which serves as a site for muscle attachment. Their muscles are very strong, which compensates for their underdeveloped skeleton.

In the body, under the outer cover there is a continuous layer of so-called circular muscles, and then 5 longitudinal muscle bands. Under the muscles there is a body cavity - the whole, where the internal organs are located.

The alimentary canal is a long cylindrical tube of considerable length. It expands near the posterior pole, forming a cloaca.

Special Cuvier organs are located here, which look like long sticky threads and are used to scare away enemies. At the moment of danger, they are thrown out, entwining a foreign object.

Animals that make up the class Holothuria breathe with the help of two water lungs. These voluminous branched organs have an opening directly connected to the cloaca, through which water enters and then pours out.

Sea cucumbers have a highly branched circulatory system. It is distinguished by a large number of blood vessels in the intestinal area. A network of vessels densely entwines the tissues of the left lung, so oxygen from it enters the blood, in contrast to the right, which supplies oxygen to the cavity fluid.

The basis of the nervous system is the peripharyngeal nerve ring, from which 5 radial nerves extend in different directions. They are located in special epineural canals. Holothurians have tentacles as their sensory organs. They do not have light-sensitive eyes. And some species have statocysts - organs of balance.

The excretory system of these animals is diffuse. The end products of sea cucumbers accumulate in amoebocytes, which then exit the body through the outer integument.

Reproduction and development

Representatives of the class of holothurians are both hermaphrodites and dioecious. They have one gonad, which looks like branched tubes. This is where eggs and sperm mature. Reproductive products are released into the surrounding water through a special genital duct.

The development of the larva takes place in three stages: dipleurula, auricularia and vdoliolaria. Holothurian larvae are swimming organisms. In the process of growth and development, they settle to the bottom and turn into adult animals. At the same time, their structure changes radically.

The class of holothurians unites marine animals that are not only very interesting, but also of significant economic importance for people. About 40 of their species are used as food. Fishing for edible sea cucumbers or sea cucumbers is carried out in the waters of Indonesia, the Philippines, and off the coast of Japan and China. In the Pacific Ocean they are mined at a rate of over 10 thousand centners per year.

And this video will introduce you in more detail to these interesting multicellular animals, which have the interesting name “sea cucumbers”:

Sea cucumbers belong to invertebrate animals of the echinoderm type, in general, to mollusks. The currently existing 1,150 species, included in 6 orders, differ in appearance, color, shape of tentacles and rings, as well as internal structure. The closest relatives are sea urchins and stars. In Russia there are about 100 species of these worm-like animals, the most popular of which are the Far Eastern sea cucumber and Japanese sea cucumber (cucumaria), from which delicious and healthy dishes are prepared.

Appearance of sea cucumber sea cucumber

Sea cucumber holothuria is a unique inhabitant of the underwater world. It looks like both a large, clumsy caterpillar and a huge worm. The soft body of these invertebrate animals, depending on the species, can be rough or smooth, and can be covered with long or short outgrowths. Representatives of sea cucumbers are colored black, brown, green, gray or red. Sea cucumbers, depending on the species, also differ in size, which varies from 0.5 centimeters to 5 meters, which makes them attractive to sea hunters.

The sea cucumber, the photo of which is presented, is slow and crawls leisurely, alternately stretching and contracting. In their normal state, cucumbers lie on one side, which makes them much easier to catch.

Medicinal properties of sea cucumbers

The sterility of the meat, the complete absence of viruses or diseases, the huge iodine content - all this is a sea cucumber. The medicinal properties of the product allow it to be used as a natural remedy for quick recovery after illness or surgery. Eastern doctors prescribe delicious trephine meat to accelerate tissue regeneration, stimulate the heart muscle, lower blood pressure, normalize metabolic processes and even get rid of tachycardia and bradycardia.

Another beneficial property of sea cucumber is its healing effect on joints, which is used in the treatment of arthritis. Substances contained in the meat of marine life can relieve pain and reduce joint stiffness.

Sea cucumber extract, obtained according to a unique recipe from oriental medicine, has become widely popular. Sea cucumber extract has exactly the same beneficial medicinal properties as its fresh meat. It is especially recommended for use as a dietary supplement by older people and those who suffer from chronic diseases. Chinese doctors claim that the extract saturates the body with a complex of essential elements, improves immunity, the functioning of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and prolongs life. Cucumaria sea cucumber tissue contains vitamins C and B, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, chlorine and amino sugars. Toxic substances holothurins are widely used in pharmacology.

Thus, the delicious meat of marine invertebrate animals is an excellent raw material for the production of unique medicinal extracts, as well as extracts, on the basis of which medicines are made. They also prepare delicious salads from sea cucumber and eat it as an independent dish (fried, stewed or canned).

Using sea cucumber as food

Some types of sea cucumber, also called sea cucumbers, are eaten and considered real delicacies. Fishing for invertebrate animals is carried out off the coast of China, Japan and in the south Pacific Ocean, in Russia - in the Far East.

Sea cucumber (you can choose the cooking recipe to suit your taste) can be fried, dried, or canned. This is an incredibly tasty and healthy product. One “but”: it becomes tasty only when cooked with some aromatic products, since they absorb odors perfectly. The Japanese eat it raw, believing that it gives a general strengthening and healing effect. Indeed, the sea animal contains vitamins, beneficial amino acids and trace elements.

Fresh sea cucumber appetizer

Thoroughly cleaned and washed sea cucumber is cut into small pieces, poured with soy sauce and seasoned with garlic to taste. Marinate for 5 minutes. One large sea cucumber is enough for a whole company of six people.

Chinese recipes from boiled sea cucumber

• Trepang (sea cucumber), the photo of which is presented below, is boiled in boiling water. For the finished dish, they are cut into slices and sprinkled with carrot sauce.
• Sea cucumber makes a very tasty soup if you add fragrant Chinese mushrooms and young bamboo shoots to it. This is a super healthy food.
• Dried sea cucumbers are pre-soaked for several hours and then boiled and used in salads or snacks.

Recipe for sea cucumber with vegetables

Soak two boiled frozen cucumbers in cold water for 20 minutes.

Rinse thoroughly and cut into 2.5 centimeter thick pieces.

Fill a deep saucepan halfway with water and place over medium heat.

Peel 100 g of ginger root, cut into cubes and place in a saucepan.

When the water boils, place the sea cucumbers there for 2 minutes, then drain in a colander and place in a dry container.

Peel and cut 2 carrots and 2 onions into thin strips, also chop 200-300 g of cabbage.

Separately, cut 200 g of smoked brisket into cubes.

Place a frying pan with 3 tbsp on medium heat. oil and add cabbage, simmer for 15 minutes.

Add a little water to prevent it from burning, pepper and add the smoked brisket, simmer, stirring, for 15 minutes.

In another frying pan, fry in 3 tbsp. oil onions and carrots, add finely chopped green onions and parsley (3 feathers each), sea cucumbers, simmer for 5 minutes.

When the cabbage becomes translucent, add the mixture from the second pan, sprinkle with sesame seeds and cover with a lid. Stirring occasionally, cook the dish for 10-15 minutes over low heat. Add a little salt and let it brew for 5-7 minutes. Served hot with hot sauces.

Sea cucumber caviar recipe

Boiled sea cucumber is ground in a large meat grinder.

Onions are chopped, carrots are grated.

Sea cucumber with vegetables is stewed for 15 minutes in a frying pan in oil, you can add fresh tomatoes or pasta. Salt and pepper to taste. Can be seasoned with soy sauce.

"Skoblyanka" from sea cucumber

Salt is fried in a frying pan, 100 g of vegetable oil is added and 2 onions, cut into rings, are fried.

Boiled sea cucumber is cut crosswise into rings and added to the pan with onions.

After a couple of minutes, add two large tomatoes cut into slices or two spoons of tomato paste, salt, and ground black pepper.

Let it boil for a few minutes, turn off the heat, and cool. Squeeze a clove of garlic and let it brew under the lid.

You can often find dried sea cucumbers on sale, covered with black coal dust - this protects them from spoilage. To prepare a dish from such a shellfish, you must first soak it in cold water for two days, periodically replacing the water. But the sea cucumber will increase several times in volume. Before subjecting it to heat treatment, the abdomen is cut and cleaned of entrails.

Cook the sea cucumber for 2-3 hours until soft. And then you can use it to prepare hodgepodge, cabbage soup, all kinds of salads, appetizers, vegetable casseroles and other dishes. Whatever you choose as a culinary experiment, you will be satisfied in any case!

Sea cucumber (Holothuroidea) or Holothuria, belongs to the class of invertebrate animals. They can be found in almost any part of the ocean. The body of the sea cucumber can be completely smooth, or covered with numerous long growths similar to thorns or needles. Sea cucumber meat contains a number of useful elements from the periodic table. It has enormous potential in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Used in many cooking recipes.

Photo of animal Trepang sea cucumber

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S8

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S8

Description of the animal Trepang sea cucumber

Trepang has an elongated oval-shaped body, which is why it got the name sea cucumber. There are many types of sea cucumbers, they all differ in shape, size and color. One species of this animal can reach five meters in length. Their usual size is up to half a meter and weighs about one and a half kilograms. The body of the mollusk may be rough or have projections very similar to spines. The sea cucumber's mouth is not suitable for chewing or crushing food. The sea cucumber has tentacles around its mouth. Their number can reach 30. With the help of these tentacles, the animal collects nutritional material from the bottom of the sea (including decomposing biomaterials that settle on the bottom). It is impossible to separate food from sand, so the animal’s belly is often filled with earth or sand. Cucumbers prefer the calm water of coral reefs or bays protected from storms and large waves. The animals move along the bottom according to the principle of a caterpillar, they pull their back part forward, the middle part bends in an arc, after which the front part of the creature is thrown forward.

Some types of sea cucumbers, when touched, shrink into a ball (bumpy), this is the protective function of this animal. For this they are sometimes called egg-pods. If a sea cucumber is cut in half, this will not lead to its death. Within six months or more, the animal can recover as a result of regeneration. And what’s surprising is that both parts can be restored, that is, after regeneration, you get two animals.

Animal prey Trepang sea cucumber

Sea cucumber is a desirable catch for fisherman. The use of sea cucumber in medicine and cooking cannot be underestimated. The body of sea cucumber contains a huge amount of useful elements and substances (organic acids and mineral salts). Meat can have an invigorating effect on the human body, while strengthening the immune system and killing harmful bacteria in the human body. The taste of sea cucumber is very tender and resembles sturgeon meat.

Different species live at different depths. Some live close to the shore. Others are found in deep-sea trenches. Several species of sea cucumbers are known to live at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Some scientists believe that it was a sea cucumber, and not a fish, that was seen by the first expedition to the bottom of the Challenger Deep.

Modern scientific classification divides sea cucumbers into 6 orders with a total of 1,150 species. They appeared on Earth about 450 million years ago.

Description of sea cucumbers

Sea cucumbers got their name because of their external resemblance to cucumber fruits. They have a soft cylindrical body, elongated in length. But the body shape can vary from almost ideal spherical (for example, sea ​​apples — Paracucumaria And Pseudocolochirus), to serpentine (for example, squad Apodida).

The average body length ranges from 10 to 30 cm. Particularly large species grow up to 3 meters in length.

The mouth is located at one end of the animal and is quite complex. It is surrounded by 10-30 tentacles that can retract inward. These tentacles can be of a wide variety of shapes - from simple tube legs to complexly branched and tree-like ones. The shape of the tentacles depends on the food consumed. In species that hunt planktonic animals, they have a tree-like shape, the main task of which is to maximize the volume of filtered water. Species that feed on the upper bottom substrate have a branched tentacle structure. And species that live on sandy or muddy bottoms have simple short tentacles in the form of blades, which make it easier for them to dig the soil.

The so-called ambulacral legs grow along the entire length of the body. They perform several important functions. Firstly, they perform a tactile function. Secondly, they participate in the respiration of the sea cucumber, transferring fresh water inside the animal. Thirdly, helping the animal move along the bottom. In some species (mostly deep-sea), the ambulacral legs are used as simple legs. But most often the muscles of the body are responsible for movement.

Behavior and lifestyle

Sea cucumbers live in all oceans in large numbers, populating the seabed. Gathering in large groups, they are constantly traveling in search of food. At a depth of over 9 km. they make up 90% of the total mass of all fauna (meaning macrofauna - visible to humans with the naked eye). Holothurians are better adapted than other animals to survive at extreme depths, and even at a depth of 5 kilometers their number and species diversity are as rich as near the surface. Only porpoises can compete with sea cucumbers for the title of the most unpretentious deep-sea animal.

The bodies of some species of deep-sea sea cucumbers (e.g. Enypniastes eximia And Paelopatides confundens) consist of a special gelatinous tissue with unique properties that provide buoyancy to the animal. This makes it possible to swim decently in the water and move to new habitats. The only “true” pelagic (lives in the water column, not on the bottom) sea cucumber is the species Pelagothuria natatrix. Other "swimming" holothurians move in this way only from time to time. They are often confused with, but the color of sea cucumbers is brighter, mostly red.

There are also species of sea cucumbers (in the order Elasipodida) with a body density almost the same as the density of water. Having pushed off from the bottom, they are able to soar in the water column at a distance of more than 1 km. Such sea cucumbers have specific swimming appendages that resemble an umbrella or petal, which the animal can rotate while swimming.

But most sea cucumbers are still exclusively bottom-dwelling and sedentary animals. Crawling along the bottom, they pick up decaying organic matter and plankton. They also use their mouth tentacles and legs to dig the bottom soil, sometimes completely burying themselves in it. By loosening the bottom and destroying detritus (undecomposed particles of animals and plants), they play a very important and useful role in the marine ecosystem. In some regions of the world's oceans, the density of sea cucumbers reaches 40 individuals per 1 m². In one year, such a group of sea cucumbers can process up to 20 kg. soil.

Pushing around on the bottom, sea cucumbers do not display any territorial behavior, occupying free space and moving forward when there is no more food left in their area. Only during the breeding season do they transmit signals to their relatives using special hormones, completely ignoring them the rest of the time.

Symbiosis with other animals

Some animals can live in symbiosis and commensalism (a way of coexistence of two organisms in which one imposes on the other regulation of the external environment) with sea cucumbers. Most often, shrimp can be found together with sea cucumbers. There is even a species of shrimp that live their entire lives with echinoderms on their body, for example, the species Periclimenes imperator.

It is worth highlighting the small fish of the family Carapidae, the so-called pearl fish. These small fish with an elongated body can live at depths of up to 2,000 m. An interesting strategy for their survival is the ability of the fry to literally hide inside the sea cucumber’s body, entering it through the anus or mouth. There it grows, hiding from predators and at the same time finding food in the remains of food coming out of the sea cucumber. When a fish grows up, it leaves its owner forever.

Many sea worms and crabs also find refuge inside sea cucumbers. Some types of sea cucumbers (eg. Actinopyga) in the process of evolution acquired special teeth in the anus, which do not allow other animals to penetrate inside them.

Methods of protection and predators

Sea cucumbers are very easy prey. They cannot escape quickly and are found everywhere in great abundance. But only highly specialized predators specifically hunt sea cucumbers. The body of sea cucumbers contains many toxins (particularly holothurin), which is why they are ignored by most marine life. Only large mollusks of the family carry out targeted hunting for sea cucumbers. Tonnidae- the so-called Barrels, which paralyze them with a powerful poison before sucking out their soft tissue.

Some species of marine fish will eat sea cucumbers if they cannot obtain other food. It has been observed that sea cucumbers are eaten by triggerfish and tetraodons, as well as some species of crabs, hermit crabs and lobsters.

To protect themselves, sea cucumbers have developed a special defense that is not found in other animals. When danger arises, they spray the poisonous part of the intestine, the Cuvier tubes, into the water through the anus. In their normal state inside the animal, Cuvier's tubes are long filaments that swell greatly when they enter water. In this way, sea cucumbers try to disorient and confuse predators. Lost pipes, depending on the type, are restored within 1-5 weeks.

The spraying of Cuvier's tubes is accompanied by the release of toxic holothurin venom into the water. This poison forms a thick foam-like mass that kills other animals that are nearby.

Meaning for humans

There are many commercially important species of sea cucumber, which are used in cooking and traditional Asian medicine. Pharmaceutical companies produce various preparations based on dried golden sea cucumber - gamate. Oils, creams, cosmetics, as well as medicines are made from it.

In Asia (mainly China), a wide variety of dishes are prepared from sea cucumber - from salads to hot dishes. Most sea cucumbers are taken from artificial reservoirs, where they have been specially bred for sale since the 1980s. It is noteworthy that sea cucumber grown or caught in Alaska is in demand in the Chinese market. It has higher nutritional value and size.

Artificial breeding of sea cucumbers ensures the safety of the population, but markets still offer sea cucumbers caught in nature, in particular on coral reefs. In the recent past, such fishing has greatly reduced some species. “Wild” cucumbers are more expensive - they are larger and are considered more tasty. To combat illegal fishing, the government has set a limit on the price per kilogram of meat of all sea cucumbers sold. This made it unprofitable to sell expensive types of sea cucumbers.