Seahorses – A source of traditional medicine

Abstract

Wild marine organisms have been used in the discovery and development of traditional and allopathic medical treatments for a long time. Seahorses, a syngnathidae fish, are one of the important candidate organisms which have been used in Chinese traditional medicine from time immemorial. It is believed that seahorses have the potential to cure infertility, baldness, asthma and arthritis. An authentic research work on the biomedical validation of seahorses proved that they have the ability to cure arthritis and its associated inflammation. A Cathepsin-derived peptide from the seahorse species of Hippocampus kuda proved to be effective in chondrocyte cells and its associated impaired arthritis inflammation. Apart from this, seahorses have a putative free radical scavenging effect in controlling the ageing process. More authentic research is needed in order to validate the biomedical potential. This article highlights the role of seahorses' value in traditional medicine and their biomedical properties.

High-Throughput Identification of Putative Antimicrobial Peptides from Multi-Omics Data of the Lined Seahorse (Hippocampus erectus)

“…According to the annotations in the public APD3 database, we classified these putative AMPs/AMP precursors into 24 groups, including thrombin, histone, lectin, defensin, cyclin-dependent protein kinases (CDK-like) [27], antiproteinase (antipro) [28], bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) [29], phospholipase A2 (PLA2) [30], liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 (LEAP-2) [31], Beta2-microglobulin (β2m) [32], enhancers of rudimentary (ERH) [33], glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) [34], and so on (see more details in Figure 1). 1 Three months post-birth; 2 Five months post-birth; 3 Seven months post-birth; 4 Approximately eight months post-birth, carrying 10-day embryos in the brood pouch; 5 Males collected in 10 days after being released from their offspring. Among the 290 putative AMP sequences, 267 are novel (with at least one residue variance from the corresponding query; File S2), and only 23 are identical to the reported query sequences, such as those from six putative ubiquitins (Ubiq, 74-aa peptides originally isolated from the gill of Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas [35]) and 17 putative histone-derived AMPs (e.g., histone H4-derived AMPs isolated from American cupped oysters Crassostrea virginica [36], H3-derived AMPs isolated from calf thymus Bos Taurus [37], and H2A-derived AMPs isolated from hemocytes of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) [38]).…”

“…Their reproductive behaviors are also unique to male pregnancy. In addition, seahorses have been a precious resource for traditional Chinese medicine [2,3]. According to many old records, at least five seahorse species had been applied in the production of these medicines; especially, the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus), introduced mainly from America, has been the most widely cultivated species in China.…”

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence for the seahorse adulteration Hippocampus camelopardalis Bianconi 1854

“…Seahorses have been used for thousands of years as important and precious traditional Chinese medicine to treat a range of conditions and ailments in China (Kumaravel et al 2012). The giraffe seahorse Hippocampus camelopardalis Bianconi, 1854 is a demersal and non-migratory seahorse that inhabits estuaries, seagrasses, and reefs.…”

Anti-fatigue activity of a mixture of seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) hydrolysate and red ginseng

“…Hippocampus kuda has various bioactivities such as anti-tumor, anti-aging, and anti-fatigue as well as Ca 2+ channel blocking properties (Kumaravel et al 2010). A peptide derived from H. kuda has been shown to be effective in chondrocytes and inflammatory arthritis (Kumaravel et al 2012). In addition, seahorses have a putative free radical scavenging effect in controlling aging process (Kumaravel et al 2012).…”

“…A peptide derived from H. kuda has been shown to be effective in chondrocytes and inflammatory arthritis (Kumaravel et al 2012). In addition, seahorses have a putative free radical scavenging effect in controlling aging process (Kumaravel et al 2012). However, the natural source of seahorse has dramatically reduced owing to overfishing, unsustainable trade, and habitat destruction (Qian et al 2012).…”