Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Urinary & fluids
- Fertility & vitality
Cautions & contraindications
- Pregnancy
- Kidney conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Tonifies Kidney Yang and treats impotence; Regulates Qi and Blood and p romotes labor
Traditional Chinese Uses
Hai Ma is the dried body of the seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi and related species, one of the warming yang tonics. Sweet and salty and warm, it enters the Kidney and Liver channels. Its principal action is to tonify Kidney yang for impotence, sexual debility, urinary incontinence and dribbling, and for chronic wheezing and asthma of the deficient and elderly. It also invigorates Blood to disperse abdominal masses and swellings, and was used to aid a difficult labour. It is decocted at 3–9 g or powdered at 1–1.5 g, and is classically steeped in wine—reflected in the old saying pairing seahorse with ginseng for tonifying yang.
All Hippocampus species are listed on CITES Appendix II and many are threatened; this describes traditional use only, and conservation-compliant substitutes should replace wild-caught seahorse.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Hai Ma comprises the dried bodies of seahorses, principally species of the genus Hippocampus (family Syngnathidae), and is therefore an animal- rather than plant-derived material. The seahorse is a small bony fish 5 to 30 centimetres long with a horse-like head set at an angle to a vertically held, segmented body sheathed in articulated bony plates, and a prehensile tail used to anchor to seagrass or coral. The dorsal fin provides slow forward propulsion and males brood eggs in a sealed ventral pouch. All Hippocampus species are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), regulating their international commerce, and populations are widely considered overexploited; sourcing of medicinal material should comply with national and international conservation regulation.
Active Constituents
Free and bound amino acids
Amino acidsTogether with protein, the bulk of the dried drug. A comparative biochemical analysis across eight Hippocampus species profiled the essential and non-essential amino acid content and evaluated it nutritionally; the reviews of the genus identify essential amino acids as one of the four major constituent classes alongside sterols, fatty acids and trace elements. Species differences exist, which is one reason the substitution problem in this drug is not purely a legal matter.
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, including DHA and EPA
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acidsCharacterised across eight seahorse species in the same 2024 comparative analysis. They are the most plausible carrier of the anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic activities reported for seahorse extracts, and, being marine lipids, they are also the fraction most vulnerable to oxidative rancidity in a dried drug stored badly.
Sterols and steroidal constituents
SterolsNamed in the review literature as one of the principal chemical classes of the genus. They are the usual explanation offered for the drug's classical reputation in impotence and Kidney yang deficiency, but no seahorse steroid has been shown to have androgenic activity at attainable doses, and that link should be treated as unproven rather than as mechanism.
Trace elements and heavy metals
Trace elements and metalsMicroelements are one of the four major constituent classes of the genus, and the traditional account leans on them. The same property is a safety issue: seahorses collected from coastal China were shown to bioaccumulate metals in their tissues, and a dried whole marine animal from an unspecified coastal fishery carries whatever its water column carried. This is a contaminant profile that no batch of this drug is routinely tested against.
Volatile chemical markers characterised by GC-MS fingerprinting
Volatile organic constituentsA 2023 study combined GC-MS fingerprinting with chemical pattern recognition to identify novel markers of medicinal seahorse. Its practical value is authentication rather than pharmacology: it offers a chemical route to distinguishing genuine medicinal seahorse material where morphology has failed.
⚠ Drug Interactions
CITES Appendix II permit requirement for all Hippocampus species
This is the defining fact about the drug and it belongs in the foreground, not in a footnote. Every species of Hippocampus was placed on CITES Appendix II at CoP12 in November 2002, entering into force on 15 May 2004; seahorses were the first marine fishes ever listed on Appendix II. The listing was made because exploitation to supply medicinal use, aquaria and curios threatened populations already under pressure from bycatch and habitat loss, and traditional Chinese medicine is the principal driver of the trade, not an incidental consumer of it. Seahorses are among the most heavily traded species by number of individuals under CITES regulation, with tens of millions of dried animals traded annually. Layered on top of the permit system are national prohibitions: India placed seahorses in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act in 2001, banning extraction and trade; Thailand, previously the source of roughly three quarters of all wild dried seahorses, suspended exports in January 2016. A 2019 Marine Policy analysis found the trade continuing in defiance of those bans, with traders in Hong Kong, the largest importer, reporting stock from Thailand, the Philippines, mainland China, Australia, India, Malaysia and Vietnam, most of which had export bans in force. Hippocampus kelloggi specifically is assessed by the IUCN as Vulnerable under criterion A2cd, having previously been Data Deficient, on suspected declines of 30% or more over ten years from targeted fisheries, trawl bycatch and habitat loss. CITES also recommends a 10 cm minimum size so that harvested animals have had a chance to breed.
Clinical note: Treat this drug as controlled wildlife. Do not move it across a border without CITES export and import permits, do not accept a supplier who cannot document legal origin, and understand that legal provenance is not merely improbable but prohibited for material from several of the main source countries. The conservation position is a clinical reason to prefer a substitute, not only a legal one.
Other Hippocampus species sold as Hai Ma, including H. trimaculatus, H. spinosissimus, H. kuda, H. histrix, H. japonicus and H. ingens
Dried seahorse is one of the most heavily substituted animal drugs in the materia medica, and the substitution is between species rather than between genuine and fake. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia itself admits five species under the single name Hai Ma: Hippocampus kelloggi, H. histrix, H. kuda, H. trimaculatus and H. japonicus, of which H. kelloggi is only one and the largest-bodied. Beyond the five, market surveys find far more. Morphological and COI analysis of 64 dried specimens from China's four major pharmaceutical markets identified thirteen seahorse species, including H. kelloggi but also H. barbouri, H. comes, H. ingens, H. mohnikei, H. erectus, H. jayakari, H. capensis and H. fuscus. In the United States, DNA barcoding of 168 samples from the traditional Chinese medicine trade found eight species with 75% of the material being H. trimaculatus, H. spinosissimus and the Latin American H. ingens. H. kelloggi is a minority of what is actually dispensed. The authors of these surveys are consistent that morphology cannot resolve dried specimens, which is why CITES import records themselves often list only Hippocampus spp.
Clinical note: Do not assume a batch labelled Hippocampus kelloggi is that species; assume it is not unless the supplier has sequenced it. Where a study or a monograph attributes an effect to Hai Ma, check which species was used, because the published pharmacology of the genus is dominated by species other than this one.
Warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents
Antithrombotic activity is one of the effects attributed to the genus in the review literature, and the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that seahorses carry have a recognised, if modest, platelet effect. The seahorse data are extract-level animal and in vitro work on mixed species with no pharmacokinetics, so no magnitude can be assigned.
Clinical note: Note rather than act on it. Ordinary vigilance for bruising or bleeding if a patient on an anticoagulant is taking seahorse-containing formulae.
Chelation therapy, and use in renal impairment or pregnancy
Seahorses collected from coastal China were shown to bioaccumulate metals in their tissues. The drug is a whole dried marine animal of unstated fishery origin, taken as a powder over weeks, with no routine testing for cadmium, arsenic, lead or mercury in the ordinary trade. Patients with reduced renal clearance, and pregnant patients, are the ones for whom a modest metal load matters, and a patient already undergoing chelation is by definition one in whom further exposure is contraindicated.
Clinical note: Avoid in pregnancy, in significant renal impairment and in anyone being treated for metal toxicity. If the drug is used at all, prefer a supplier who provides heavy metal assay results for the batch.
Oxytocin and other uterotonics, and use in labour
The oldest recorded indication for this drug, from the Tang materia medica onwards, is obstructed labour, and the modern function statement retains promoting labour. No study has examined uterine activity with seahorse material in any species, and no interaction with a uterotonic has been described. The relevance is that the traditional indication puts the drug in the same clinical space as agents that are titrated carefully.
Clinical note: Should not be used in pregnancy or in labour outside a setting where uterine activity is monitored, and never alongside pharmacological induction or augmentation.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction, or powder/pills | 3–9 g | Daily | — | — | 中国药典 2020 【用法与用量】3～9g。外用适量，研末敷患处。 【性味与归经】甘、咸，温。归肝、肾经。 — Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020, quoted verbatim; route and cautions preserved. Replaces a cleared category-filler value. |
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 6 studiesRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
6
4 verified · 2 unverified
Show 6 studies
- Morphology and molecular identification of the zoological origin of medicinal seahorses in Chinese herbal markets
- The United States dried seahorse trade: A comparison of traditional Chinese medicine and ecommerce-curio markets using molecular identification
- Comprehensive biochemical analysis and nutritional evaluation of fatty acid and amino acid profiles in eight seahorse species (Hippocampus spp.)
- Bioaccumulation of Metals in Tissues of Seahorses Collected from Coastal China
- GC-MS Fingerprinting Combined with Chemical Pattern-Recognition Analysis Reveals Novel Chemical Markers of the Medicinal Seahorse
- Genetic Diversity and Environmental Adaptation Signatures of the Great Seahorse (Hippocampus kelloggi) in the Coastal Regions of the Indo-Pacific as Revealed by Whole-Genome Re-Sequencing
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Morphology and molecular identification of the zoological origin of medicinal seahorses in Chinese herbal markets
Sixty-four dried specimens from China's four major pharmaceutical markets were examined by morphology and 662 bp COI sequencing, yielding 43 haplotypes in twelve clades. Thirteen seahorse species were identified in the trade, including Hippocampus kelloggi alongside H. spinosissimus, H. barbouri, H. kuda, H. comes, H. histrix, H. trimaculatus, H. ingens, H. mohnikei, H. erectus, H. jayakari, H. capensis and H. fuscus. The authors are explicit that authenticating dried seahorse is very difficult on morphology alone because the species are so similar, which is the practical basis for treating any labelled species attribution with suspicion.
The United States dried seahorse trade: A comparison of traditional Chinese medicine and ecommerce-curio markets using molecular identification
DNA barcoding and size measurement of 532 dried seahorse samples from two US end-markets. Of the 168 traditional Chinese medicine samples, eight species were found, 75% being Hippocampus trimaculatus, H. spinosissimus and the Latin American H. ingens; the separate curio market was dominated by juvenile H. kuda and H. zosterae. The TCM trade largely met the CITES 10 cm size recommendation, at 85.7%, against only 4.8% of curio samples. CITES records show approximately 602,275 dried specimens imported into the United States between 2004 and 2020, often recorded only as Hippocampus spp. because morphological identification of confiscated shipments is impracticable. The paper is the clearest demonstration that the medicinal end-market and the species on the label are only loosely connected.
Comprehensive biochemical analysis and nutritional evaluation of fatty acid and amino acid profiles in eight seahorse species (Hippocampus spp.)
Profiled fatty acids and amino acids across eight Hippocampus species and evaluated them nutritionally. It is the most useful comparative chemistry available for the drug because it quantifies how much of the composition is species-dependent, which is exactly the question raised by the substitution surveys. Biochemical analysis only; no pharmacological or clinical endpoint.
Bioaccumulation of Metals in Tissues of Seahorses Collected from Coastal China
Measured metal concentrations in the tissues of seahorses collected from coastal China, demonstrating bioaccumulation. This is the empirical basis for treating heavy metal load as a real rather than hypothetical concern in a dried whole marine animal taken medicinally over weeks, and for asking suppliers for batch assays.
GC-MS Fingerprinting Combined with Chemical Pattern-Recognition Analysis Reveals Novel Chemical Markers of the Medicinal Seahorse
Applied GC-MS fingerprinting with chemical pattern recognition to medicinal seahorse and identified novel chemical markers. Offers a chemical rather than genetic route to authentication, which matters for heavily processed material where DNA is degraded.
Genetic Diversity and Environmental Adaptation Signatures of the Great Seahorse (Hippocampus kelloggi) in the Coastal Regions of the Indo-Pacific as Revealed by Whole-Genome Re-Sequencing
Whole-genome re-sequencing of Hippocampus kelloggi across the Indo-Pacific, describing its genetic diversity and adaptation signatures. Species-specific work on the drug's nominal source animal, relevant to the conservation assessment and to the design of authentication markers rather than to therapeutics.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Shi Yi
Tang dynasty, c. 739Ben Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynasty, 1596References
- Chen L, Wang X, Huang B. The genus Hippocampus—A review on traditional medicinal uses, chemical constituents and pharmacological properties . Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2015) [DOI]
- Foster SJ, Kuo TC, Wan AKY, Vincent ACJ. Global seahorse trade defies export bans under CITES action and national legislation . Marine Policy (2019) [DOI]
- Song P, Wang M, Liu T, Zhang Z, Ren X, Liu Y, Ng JPL, Wong VKW, Law BYK, Fu X, Qu L. Medicinal seahorses (Hippocampus spp.) for Alzheimer’s disease within species conservation framework: an integrated review of ethnopharmacology, bioactivity, bibliometrics, and network pharmacology . Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology (2026) [DOI]
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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