Crayfish frequently sheds during the
first days of life and unshells more than five times a year, but after that, it
repeats molting about 2-3 times a year and grows larger. During this molting,
the gastrolith plays a vital role in forming a new shell.
The crayfish dissolves the body's
calcium, such as the shell, into the blood and collects it in the stomach
before molting, and then makes stones in the stomach. After storing the calcium
content in the gastric stone and removing the shell, the calcium content of the
stone is dissolved in the blood and returned to a new body to create a hard and
robust outer shell. It's an amazing mechanism.
This gastrolith is composed of two
small white hemispheres that form a single sphere. Therefore, crayfish gastric stones
can only be collected from crayfish at the molting stage, and only two small
semi-hemispheres can be obtained from one crayfish.
This crayfish gastrolith was once called Oculi Cancri and was prized as
a medicine. It is about the Edo period. In Korea, the gastrolith of Korean
crayfish was used. In Japan, the gastrolith of Japanese crayfish was used.
Japanese crayfish gastrolith was
traded at a high price as a particular product of Hokkaido, a remote area. The
gastroliths that can be taken from small crayfish, which is a little body, are
small and can only be taken from the molting periods, and since it is a product
of an undeveloped and remote area, you can understand how expensive it was.
Since it makes so much money, Japanese
crayfish was produced in each domain in the northern Tohoku. Some scholars
argue that the Japanese crayfish currently living in northern Tohoku are
descendants of those transplanted from Hokkaido at that time, and before that,
the Japanese crayfish did not live in Honshu.
Originally, Oculi Cancri is a word
that means "crustacean eye" in Latin and has been used as a medicine
in Europe for a long time. Indeed, the crayfish gastrolith is shaped like an
eye.
In the 16th century, Christian
missionaries who came to Japan, also carried Oculi Cancri powder and took it
for gastrointestinal illnesses such as stomach cramps. Oculi Cancri also
appears in the book written in the 17th century. In the 18th century, there was
a record that the 8th Shogun Yoshimune imported 2 pounds of Oculi Cancri, and
the crayfish of Japanese crayfish began to be introduced by the trade with
Ainu. In addition to the Matsumae Domain, as mentioned earlier, each domain in
the northern Tohoku region is also involved in the gastrolith business of the
Japanese crayfish. In the 19th century, it was known that Nagasaki physician
Siebold preferred Oculi Cancri. During his trip to Edo, he got a Japanese
crayfish in Shimonoseki and made it a specimen. That was in 1826. At that time,
Oculi Cancri was already available in local cities. After 15 years, the
Japanese crayfish were officially reported to the academic society by De Haan
and named Cambaroides Japonicus.
In the Edo period, Oculi Cancri was
prescribed as a panacea that was effective for various diseases such as eye
diseases, urinary organ diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, and swelling.
Some people may think, "The
people in the Edo period were unscientific to think of a mere calcium mass as a
panacea. But don't downplay the wisdom of your predecessors!
Oculi Cancri is not just a mass of
calcium. Yes, most of them are calcium, but the calcium itself is excellent as
described below, and also, it contains a small amount of protein with fantastic
power.
Let's talk about calcium first. Oculi Cancri calcium is not simple calcium.
Usually, calcium in the body of living organisms exists in a crystallized
state, but the calcium in Oculi Cancri exists in an uncrystallized state.
It is called ACC (Amorphous Calcium Carbonate). Since ACC exists in a volatile
state of amorphous, it dissolves easily, and when taken into the body of
a living organism, it quickly establishes as stable calcium crystals in
bones. Therefore, Oculi Cancri is not just a lump of calcium, but it is
also an excellent calcium supplement.
Let's talk about the small amount of protein in Oculi Cancri. Recent research
has shown that this protein has tremendous power and is very good. The
protein has been isolated and identified and is named GAP X (X is a number).
Patent applications have already been filed for use as pharmaceuticals.
By the way, GAP is an abbreviation for Gastrolith Protein. In the future,
it may generate enormous profits in the pharmaceutical field.
In the first place, calcium is an
essential component of the organism's body and plays a central role in signal
transduction. In the future, we will discuss the role of amorphous calcium in
the formation of calcium crystals present in the human body, the role of
proteins such as GAP, and the mechanism in the human body. It seems that
further research should proceed.
In any case, the protein contained in
Oculi Cancri has tremendous power and is known to be effective for pain,
proliferative disease, neuropathy, immune deficiency, cardiovascular disease,
lung disease, nutritional disorder, reproductive disorder, musculoskeletal
disorder, and dental diseases. More specifically, it is effective for
post-operative pain, post-injury pain, pain associated with cancer, neuropathic
pain, etc. For proliferative diseases, it is effective in reducing or
inhibiting the growth of cancer, such as breast cancer and bronchial cancer,
and tumor cells. Also, neurological disorders include demyelinating diseases,
dementia, and movement disorders, including degenerative diseases such as
multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. For
musculoskeletal disorders, it also works for bone disorders and bone marrow disorders,
such as fractures and osteoporosis. That is why it is already started to be
used in the medical field.
After all, Oculi Cancri is a panacea!
It wasn't just a lump of calcium, was
it? It would be so. The weight of calcium in Oculi Cancri is only 3 percent of
the weight of calcium in the shell. The remaining 97 percent of the calcium
needed to form a new shell after molting will be taken from outside the
crayfish.
If calcium supplementation is the
unique purpose of the crayfish gastrolith, the gastrolith should be larger,
and, through the process of evolution, a gastrolith should be to store calcium
that accounts for a higher percentage of calcium lost in molting. In other
words, the purpose of gastrolith is not only to supplement calcium, but rather
to protect against viruses that try to invade through the soft skin that is
peeled off during molting and to strengthen immunity.
A long time ago, there was a terrible
execution called flaying. Even humans, if the skin is peeled off, bacteria will
invade and go around the whole body, and they die from infections such as
sepsis. For the crayfish, the soft state under the molting shell is just like
an Inaba white rabbit whose skin is peeled off the body. To survive in such a
state, I think that the gastrolith supplies the incredible protein GAP and ACC
that is amorphous calcium to save the life of the crayfish.
You may not be given up by doctors
right now, but if you may be so in the future, how about collecting it?
Now, let's talk about how to collect
Oculi Cancri.
