Whitebait yínyú

("Outline")

English name: whitebait

Latin name Hemisalanx prognathus Regan

Also known as icefish or glassfish.

The collective name for a variety of translucent fish belonging to the genus Salanx in the family Salangidae. Found in salt and fresh water in East Asia, it is known as a delicacy in China. The body is slender, salmon-like, scaleless or with fine scales, rarely longer than 15 cm (6 inches). The mouth is large and the teeth are large and sharp. Prey fish.

Whitebait is a freshwater fish, about seven to ten centimeters long, with a slightly round body, tender and transparent, and a color like silver, hence its name. The fish found in the Yangtze River Estuary is slightly longer and is commonly known as "noodle fish" or "noodle fish". Taihu Lake has a long history of whitebait. According to the "Taihu Lake Preparation", during the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue, Taihu Lake was rich in whitebait. There are four species of Taihu whitebait: Taihu shortnose whitebait, oligodentate shortnose whitebait, large whitebait and Lei's whitebait. The yield is highest among large whitebait and Taihu shortnose whitebait.

Synonyms

Wang Yu (annotated by Guo Pu in "Erya"), Clam Canyu ("Erya Wings"), Silver Sliver Fish ("Daily Materia Medica"), Noodle fish ("Yellow and Bohai Sea Fish Survey Report"), big whitebait ("Fish Taxonomy").

Source

It is the entire body of whitebait from the order Salmoniformes and the suborder Whitebaitidae.

Animal form

Silver fish has a slender body, nearly round shape, the rear section is slightly flattened laterally, and the body is about 12 cm long. The head is extremely flat. The eyes are large; the mouth is also large, and the snout is long and pointed, triangular in shape. The upper and lower jaws are equal in length; there is a row of fine teeth on the premaxilla, maxilla, mandible and oral cavity. There is a pair of canine teeth on the front of the mandible. There is no anterior symphysis at the front of the mandible, but there is a fleshy protrusion. Dorsal fin II 11-13, slightly located at the posterior 3/4 of the body. Pectoral fins 8-9, muscle base not obvious. Anal fin III 23-28, opposite to the dorsal fin; male fish have a row of large scales on both sides of the base of the anal fin, usually 18-21. There is a small transparent adipose fin in the center of the dorsal fin and caudal fin. The body is soft and scale-free, and the whole body is transparent. After death, the body is milky white. There is a row of black spots on each side of the body, and there are 2 parallel rows of small black spots on the ventral surface starting from the chest, passing through the abdomen and in front of the anal fin, separated left and right along the base of the anal fin, and merged into one at the rear end, reaching the base of the tail. In addition, small black spots are also scattered on the caudal fin and the first ray of the pectoral fin.

Living environment and distribution

A freshwater fish that can live in coastal waters and has the habit of migrating from oceans to rivers. It is distributed in coastal areas from Shandong to Zhejiang, especially in Poyang Lake, Chongming and other places at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Taihu Lake in my country is rich in whitebait. A few species are distributed in North Korea, Japan and the Sakhalin region in the Russian Far East.

Chemical composition

100 grams of edible part contains: 89 grams of water, 8.2 grams of protein, 0.3 grams of fat, 1.4 grams of carbohydrates, 1.0 grams of ash; 258 mg of calcium, 102 phosphorus mg, iron 0.5 mg, thiamine 0.01 mg, riboflavin 0.05 mg, niacin 0.2 mg.

Nature and flavor

"Daily Materia Medica": "Sweet, flat, non-toxic."

Meridians

"Compendium of Materia Medica" "Qiuzhen": "Enter the spleen and stomach."

Functions and Indications

Tenifying deficiency, strengthening the stomach, benefiting the lungs, and diuresis.

① "Daily Materia Medica": "Kuanzhong strengthens the stomach, and is good when combined with ginger."

② Yao Kecheng's "Food Materia Medica": "Diuretic, moisturizing the lungs, and relieving cough."

③ "Yilin Zhuan Yao": "Nourishes the lungs and clears gold, nourishes yin, and replenishes deficiency and fatigue."

④ "Suixiju Diet Spectrum": "Nourishes stomach yin, "

Related legends

Once upon a time, there was a pair of boys and girls beside the Dragon King of the Crystal Palace. The boy was named Yin Guo and the girl was named Yin Hua. One day, the Dragon King sent them to the human world to check the growth of living things. In the human world, they saw people living a happy life and were very envious.

After that, their relationship grew deeper and deeper, so they got married and lived a free life of men farming and women weaving, respecting and loving each other, and they never wanted to go back to the Crystal Palace. Later, the Dragon King knew about it and thought that Yin Guo and Yin Hua violated the order and the crime could not be tolerated, so he sent sailors and generals to capture them and bring them back to the palace to question their crimes. small fish. From then on, silver fruits and silver flowers could only swim in shallow water. They have a deep relationship. Yinghua is pregnant in the human world, her belly is getting bigger day by day, and she swims very slowly. Silver fruit always travels with Yinghua and looks for food for Yinghua. Unexpectedly, this was found out by the Dragon King. The Dragon King was furious and immediately issued a decree not to allow the baby to be born. When Yinguo and Yinghua heard this, they were so sad that they shed tears for each other. Yinguo said: "Doesn't this mean we will have no children?" Yinghua continued: "We are husband and wife, how can we have no children? I am determined to die of disembowelment. This will preserve the reproduction of future generations." After that, Yinghua said They swam towards the rubble, broke their abdomen, laid eggs and died. As soon as the silver fruit saw that the silver flower was dead, it placed the eggs and died soon after. This is a fairy tale and cannot be trusted. But it is true that the life of a silverbait is only one year. The whitebait caught by fishermen, regardless of size, is the fish of that year.

Nutritional analysis of whitebait

Whitebait is a high-protein and low-fat food, which is also suitable for patients with hyperlipidemia. According to traditional Chinese medicine, it is sweet in taste and mild in nature, good at nourishing the spleen and stomach, and can be beneficial to the lungs and diuretic, and can treat weak spleen and stomach, cough due to lung deficiency, and various diseases caused by fatigue.