New Records of Toxic and Medicinal Fishes in China

Author: Wu Hanlin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-01
Features: The book New Records of Toxic and Medicinal Fishes in China has the following innovations:
① In fish identification, the author corrected many previously misidentified fish species based on new research findings in domestic and international taxonomy.
② In the study of serum toxic fish, as early as the 1970s, the author of this book discovered through animal experiments that yellow catfish serum is toxic and can kill mice. In the 1980s, he also identified the first case of poisoning from drinking catfish blood in China.
③ In the study of bile toxic fish, the author, through animal experiments, newly discovered that the bile of 6 freshwater fish is toxic. Theoretically, this clarified that bile toxic fish originate from the Cyprinidae family, and all fish in the Cyprinidae family have toxic bile. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to swallow them, correcting the long-standing claim since 1578 by Li Shizhen in Compendium of Materia Medica that the bile of black carp and crucian carp is non-toxic and can treat diseases, thus contributing to the prevention and control of fish bile poisoning as a social hazard.
④ In the study of dermal mucus toxic fish, the book first described the animal experimental findings on the five-lined goby, confirming that the mucus secreted by this fish is toxic.
⑤ In the study of egg toxic fish, as early as the 1970s, the author conducted the first animal experiments on the egg toxins of Striped Light-lipped Fish, confirming that the eggs of light-lipped fish are toxic.
⑥ In the study of pufferfish toxic fish, the author conducted animal experiments on the toxicity of 19 pufferfish species native to China, providing useful references for future research on pufferfish toxicity.
⑦ The book corrected obvious errors in some medicinal fish entries in previous medical books regarding the medicinal parts used. For example, some medical books believed that the swim bladder of the white-spotted shark (Squalus acanthias) could be used medicinally. However, the author's dissection revealed that sharks do not have swim bladders; the "fish white" should actually be the testes. Similarly, some medical books claimed that the cloud-dotted goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata) could be used medicinally, which is misleading. The cloud-dotted goby is a toxic fish containing tetrodotoxin, and ingesting it can cause poisoning, with severe cases potentially leading to death.