Clam is a kind of seafood that grows in shallow sea. Its shell is thick, slightly triangular, generally less than 6 cm long, with yellow-green or yellow-brown surface and alternating radial color patterns. The top of the shell is often bare and white. The growth line is obvious, quadrangular, the top of the shell is thin and the three sides are gradually thickened. The internal ligament is yellowish brown. The left and right shells each have two main teeth, the left shell has 1 flaky side teeth in front and back, and the right shell has 1 bilateral teeth in front and back. The inner surface of the shell is white or blue-purple, with obvious traces of coat, and the concave pit of coat is deep and dull. This is similar to the yellow sand clam seen in the south. There are circles and ribs outside the shell of the yellow sand clam, which grows on the edge of the river beach and is a freshwater river.

The unique seafood in Qingdao is clam.

The Chinese name of this kind of clam is Ruditapes variegata, which is near Qingdao. It is mainly produced in Jiaozhou Bay, inhabiting the bottom of mudflat below the middle and lower part of intertidal zone, and its yield is the highest below the dry tide line. The depth of its perch in sediments is generally not more than twice its body length. On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, after the ebb tide, people often go to the seaside to dig this seafood to satisfy their appetite. In mass production, clams are dug and captured in deep water.

Meretrix meretrix is not only delicious, but also nutritious. It is a cheap seafood. It contains protein, fat, carbohydrate, iron, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, vitamins, amino acids and taurine. It is an ideal food with low calorie and high protein, which can prevent and treat chronic diseases of middle-aged and elderly people.

Meretrix meretrix tastes salty and cold, and has the functions of nourishing yin, moistening dryness, promoting diuresis, reducing swelling, softening and resolving hard mass. It is recorded in the Classic of Materia Medica: "Clams moisten and produce fluid, so they can moisten the five internal organs, quench thirst and stimulate appetite." Salty taste can soften blood, so housewives' blood clots and old habits are also cold and hot. "Now, in addition to this traditional usage, Meretrix meretrix tissue is also chemically extracted, and the extract is called meretrix. Animal experiments have proved that Meretrix meretrix can inhibit and alleviate sarcoma and ascites tumor in mice.

Modern medicine believes that clam stew cooked food, three times a day can cure diabetes; Clam meat and leek are often eaten, which can treat thirst, dry cough, upset and hand, foot and heart fever caused by yin deficiency. Regular consumption of clams is also effective for goiter, jaundice, dysuria and abdominal distension.

(Notes on Materia Medica)

Exonym Chuichao (Dictionary of Zoology), Sand clam, Sand clam (Quanzhou Materia Medica).

It comes from the meat of clams or other kinds of clams.

Animal-shaped four-cornered clam

2 shells, thick, slightly quadrangular. The length of the shell is 36 ~ 48 mm, the height is 34 ~ 46 mm, and the width is about 4/5 of the height. The left and right shells are equal. The top of the shell is slightly bent forward, located in the middle of the rear edge of the shell, slightly forward. The middle part of the shell surface expands and contracts rapidly forward and backward and near the belly edge, making the front and rear edges form rib, crescent and rafter hearts. The growth line on the shell surface is obviously thicker, forming an uneven concentric ring. A shell has a shell skin, with a white or lavender top, yellowish brown near the ventral surface, and a narrow black belt at the ventral edge. The inside of the shell is grayish white. The hinge is very wide. The left shell has 1 bifurcated main teeth; The right shell has two main teeth arranged in a figure of eight; The lateral teeth are developed and all are flaky. The outer ligament is small and light yellow, and the inner ligament is extremely developed and yellow-brown. The coat trace is clear, close to the abdominal edge, the coat sinus is not deep, and the end is blunt and round. The anterior obturator internus scar is slightly smaller and oval, and the posterior closed hole rocky scar is slightly larger and nearly quadrangular. The mantle has double edges, and the inner edge has branched tentacles. The water pipe is yellow and white with tentacles at the end. Feet developed, flat side, axe-shaped.

Living in shallow mudflats, distributed along the coast of China.

Powder (snail powder) made from the shell of this animal is also used in medicine. See the special article for details.

It can be collected all year round.

Chemical composition: every 100g food contains 80g of water, protein 10g, fat 1.6g, carbohydrate 4.6g, ash 3g, calcium 37mg, phosphorus 82mg of iron14.2mg, vitamin A400 international unit and thiamine 0.03mg. Every kilogram of dried clams contains 2400 micrograms of iodine. The edible part contains 5 mg ascorbic acid per 100g.

It tastes salty and cold.

① Jia You Herbal Medicine: "Cold, non-toxic."

② Daily medicinal materials: "salty, cold and nontoxic."

(3) "Eating is about to happen": "Sweet, cold and non-toxic."

Return to the classic of materia medica: "Entering the Yangming Meridian of Foot."

Functions mainly include nourishing yin, promoting diuresis, resolving phlegm and softening hardness. Treat thirst, edema, phlegm accumulation, tinea, swelling and pain, collapse, leukorrhagia and hemorrhoids.

(1) Notes on Materia Medica: "Cook it to sober up."

② Jiayou Materia Medica: "Moisten the five internal organs, quench thirst, stimulate appetite, relieve hangover, treat the old people's aversion to cold and heat, and cook women's blood clots."

③ Compendium of Medical Forest: "Merits and virtues are the same as clams, nourishing yin and improving eyesight."

④ Seeking the grassland: "Eliminating edema, promoting diuresis, resolving phlegm, treating metrorrhagia, gall tumor and five hemorrhoids."

⑤ Quanzhou Herbal Medicine: "Indications are jaundice, dysuria, abdominal distension and stranguria."

Oral administration and dosage: cooking.

The famous scholar stated in the Classic of Materia Medica: "Clams moisten dryness and help body fluids, so they can moisten the five internal organs, quench thirst and stimulate appetite." Salty taste can soften blood, so housewives' blood clots and old habits are also cold and hot. "