Carassius auratus

Carassius auratus

(food materia medica by Yao Kecheng)

[synonym] Chinese whale (ichthyology), old female pig fish and mountain crucian carp (fishes in Heilongjiang Basin).

[source] it is the meat of Cyprinidae.

[animal form] Hua?

The body is slightly flattened and the abdomen is round. The body length is about 15 cm. The head is very short, the snout is blunt and round, and the snout is slightly longer than the eye diameter. The lower part of the mouth is horseshoe shaped. There is a well-developed cuticle at the front edge of the lower part. The upper part is arc-shaped and the lower part is interrupted. The two nostrils are sunken, making the snout protrude. Maxilla 1 pair, very short. The hypopharyngeal teeth have one row, the tooth end is hook shaped, and the lateral one is cylindrical. The scales are medium large and the lateral scales are 40-41. Dorsal fin Ⅲ 7, unbranched, with a hard base and a starting point before the ventral fin. Anal fin Ⅲ 6. It's shorter. The body is mostly dark, with four vertical wide black spots on the side of the body; each fin is black, and its edge is white.

They like to live in the bottom sediment laden water or the lower middle layer of still water. The oviposition period is from April to May. It is distributed in the main and tributaries of the Yangtze River and Heilongjiang River, as well as the affiliated lakes and rivers.

[nature and taste] Yao Kecheng's food materia medica: "sweet, flat, non-toxic. "

[functions and indications] Yao Kecheng's food materia medica: "it calms the stomach and harmonizes the body, promotes urination, and relieves heat and toxin. Pickled food is better. "