Hai Zao (Sargassum)
Sargassum Seaweed or Chinese Hai Zao are nutritious and rich sources of bioactive compounds such as vitamins, carotenoids, dietary fibers, proteins, and minerals.
Usage
Anti-inflammatory
It has anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties.
Thyroid related diseases
The bioactive compounds in Sargassum heals with treating thyroid related diseases
Ancient Herbal Therapy
For nearly 2000 years, Sargassum has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat a variety of diseases, including thyroid disease (e.g. goiter).
It dissolves phlegm and softens hardness, and is used to address hyperthyroidism,
hypothyroidism scrofula, enlargement of the scrotum, and other solid expressions of phlegm accumulation.
Hai Zao regulates water circulation and reduces swelling to address edema and dysuria.
How to add hai zao/sargassum to your diet?
Sargassum seaweed may be used fresh, eaten with a dash of vinegar or lemon juice, in salads, or it can be cooked in water like a vegetable.
Make a Meal
Can eaten by itself or added to fish and meat dishes.
Supplement
Comes in the form of a liquid extract, capsule, and powder.
For nearly 2000 years, Sargassum has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
it grows from 20 centimeters to 200 centimeters in length.
Sargassum seaweed has a mythical mage in Western culture.
Sargasso sea was named after this seaweed, which surrounds Bermuda in the North Atlantic.
About
Sargassum or Chinese Hai Zao is a genus of brown seaweed, commonly known as gulf-weed or sea holly belonging to the family Sargassaceae and contains approximately 400 species. As it possesses many pharmacological properties, it has been considered as a medicinal food of the twenty-first century, and research is being carried out on it to reveal its other pharmacological properties.
Composition
Hai Zao is seaweed of shallow marine meadows. These are nutritious and rich sources of bioactive compounds such as vitamins, carotenoids, dietary fibers, proteins, and minerals. Also, many biologically active compounds like terpenoids, flavonoids, sterols, sulfated polysaccharides, polyphenols, sargaquinoic acids, sargachromenol, pheophytin were isolated from different Sargassum species. These isolated compounds exhibit diverse biological activities like analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti-microbial, anti-tumor, fibrinolytic, immune-modulatory, anti-coagulant, hepatoprotective, anti-viral activity, etc.
Research
A randomized clinical trial enrolling healthy volunteers was carried out to evaluate the effects of Hai Zo supplementation. An experiment was conducted to investigate whether the intake could exert beneficial effects on human health. Volunteers were asked to consume dried encapsulated Sargassum daily for 4 weeks. Analysis was made on several parameters, including blood lipid profile, stress hormone level, fatigue status, liver functions, and lymphocyte subpopulation level, before and after consumption. Oxidized cholesterol levels decreased and there was a correlation between decreased LDL levels and increased total antioxidant status... There was a remarkable increase in natural killer (NK) lymphocyte count. Healthy subjects showed significant improvement of biomarkers of fatigue and liver functions. These results suggest that Sargassum may have potentially beneficial effects as a healthy food supplement through its antioxidant, hepatoprotective, and immunologic functions.
Safety
In regular dose levels, Hai Zao does not create the negative feedback loop inhibiting the release of thyroid hormones that it does in large doses and can therefore be used long term to build up iodine levels in those with hypothyroidism. There is no general recommendation for the dosage, but most traditional recipes suggest 4.5-15g.
Fun Facts
Some species, such as billfish, use the sargassum mats as sort of a mobile nursery, providing food and shelter as fish grow!
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Milledge, J. J., Nielsen, B. V., & Bailey, D. (2016). High-value products from macroalgae: the potential uses of the invasive brown seaweed, Sargassum muticum. Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology, 15(1), 67-88.
Liu, L., Heinrich, M., Myers, S., & Dworjanyn, S. A. (2012). Towards a better understanding of medicinal uses of the brown seaweed Sargassum in Traditional Chinese Medicine: A phytochemical and pharmacological review. Journal of ethnopharmacology, 142(3), 591-619.
Recipes
