Not Just Food?

According to traditional Chinese books on the medicinal effects of foodstuffs, the gelatin in shark fin has the property of retaining water. If old people eat it regularly, it can combat the aging of the skin, blood vessels and viscera, and for young people it has the effect of improving the complexion and promoting vitality.

But surely most Chinese people today who eat shark fin do so because it tastes good. For shark fin does not have any immediate curative effect; one cannot reverse the aging process and restore youth, nor banish wrinkled skin and white hair, simply by eating shark fin.

In the eyes of Chinese herbal pharmacists and doctors, shark fin is just food. As for nutritionists' view, Professor Chang Hung-min of Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Food Science and Technology, who has analyzed the constituents of shark fin, says that although shark fin is rich in protein, the human body lacks the amino acids necessary to synthesize and utilize it. From a nutritional point of view, he says, "a bowl of shark fin soup is less nourishing than an egg." But the Chinese value the medicinal effects of foods. If we examine shark fin from a pharmacological standpoint, we can delve further into its effects.

After the sharks' fins have been cut off, their meat is often made into fishpaste and fishballs.

There really are people researching the pharmacological effects of shark fin, but they are foreigners who criticize the Chinese for eating it.

The West's highly developed biological sciences have unlocked one of the shark's extraordinary secrets. Sharks are extremely primitive fish, and first appeared in the oceans 400 million years ago. Scientists have discovered that sharks, whose morphology has changed very little over the ages, never get cancer. Cancer cells cannot survive in a shark's body, and it is believed that the cartilage which on average accounts for 7% of a shark's body weight is the most important reason for this immunity.

Dr. Steve Li, medical consultant to the Shark Rich Company, says that Western scientists first discovered that cartilage from calves has an anticarcinogenic effect. But a calf's body only contains limited amounts of cartilage; so the cartilage to be found throughout sharks' bodies became an important material for Western medical research over the last 20 years.

By now scientists have gradually confirmed the effects of shark cartilage. Although at present they are still unable to fully reproduce in the laboratory the substances extracted from it, next year the US Food and Drug Administration may authorize human trials of drugs prepared from shark cartilage.

In the ROC, the Taiwan Fishery Research Institute, inspired by American research, is currently investigating the ability of shark cartilage to ward off disease from fish raised in fish farms.

The shark fins which the Chinese regard as a delicacy are at the extremities of the shark's cartilaginous skeleton. "Shark fins are made of cartilage too, so they should have the same medicinal effects," says Chen Tsong-song of the Marine Food Technology Department at the Fishery Research Institute. But unfortunately this does not mean that the Chinese, who have been eating shark fin since the Ming dynasty, showed any great foresight in doing so.

The shark cartilage powder which American researchers recently discovered to have an effect on cancer cells must be manufactured and ground up under special low-temperature conditions. Before the Chinese eat shark fin, they first remove the scales with powerfully caustic quicklime, then boil the fins for five or six hours. By this time, the active ingredients in the cartilage have lost their effects.

But in fact, apart from its anticarcinogenic properties, the idea of medicinal applications of shark cartilage is nothing new.

The ROC food scientist Chen Si-chiu once researched shark cartilage with a view to finding a use for this waste product of fish processing. Later he also extracted and experimented with bone calcium compounds from processed shark fin and discovered that they contain polysaccharides which can prevent thrombosis. The chondroitin contained in cartilage can lower serum cholesterol levels and can promote cell activity.

Today, medical researchers have extracted active substances from shark cartilage to treat nephritis and arteriosclerosis. Six years ago the Japanese began producing large quantities of eye lotion with a protective and anti-inflammatory effect from shark skeletons derived from Japan's deep-sea fishing industry.

Seeing the current wave of interest in shark cartilage in international medical circles, Chen Si-chiu comments that the fact that the Chinese had the idea of eating shark fins is most intriguing, but sadly Chinese medicine has no statistical data or investigative experiments. What's more, excessive consumption of shark fin not only threatens sharks' survival, but also robs us of the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of shark fin. Li Tsung-han says that American research into the anticarcinogenic properties of shark cartilage has not covered shark fin, because "shark fin is too expensive."