the aphrodisiac power of

sea cucumber

A distant relative of sea urchin, sea cucumber is not a vegetable at all, but a strange little echinoderm with a phallic shape. Sea cucumber is found around the world, but is most popular in Asia where the Chinese, Malaysians, Koreans and Indonesians consider its flesh a delicacy.

The Chinese, on the other hand, seem to love their phalluses and eat them, too. The Chinese are among the world’s biggest consumers of sea cucumber and use it to treat high blood pressure and joint pain as well as low libido. (The Chinese name for sea cucumber is hai shen, translating roughly into “sea ginseng.”) Throughout Indonesia, sea cucumber is considered to have many healing uses. Because the sea cucumber is one of the earth’s oldest living creatures (it has existed for over 500 million years), the slug of the sea has developed an extraordinary immune system – and one that, surprisingly, resembles that of humans. Early studies in the 1980’s and 1990’s examined a potential for sea cucumber extracts to speed the healing of wounds and even reduce scarring, aid in the treatment of HIV and potentially slow the growth of cancer. As a homeopathic treatment, sea cucumber is often dried and sold in capsule form. In many parts of the world, these pills are marketed as a natural alternative to the drug Viagra.