Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Colds & fever
- Energy & fatigue
Cautions & contraindications
- Liver conditions
☯ TCM Properties
Nourishes Yin , eliminates Heat, c alms cough, stops bleeding
Traditional Chinese Uses
Shui Ta Gan is the liver of the otter (Lutra lutra), classical name Lutrae Jecur. In traditional texts it is a sweet, salty substance entering the Liver and Kidney channels, classed as a Yin tonic. It was used to nourish Yin and clear Deficiency-Heat, calm chronic cough and wheezing, and stop bleeding, applied to Yin-deficient patterns such as consumptive disease (xu lao), night sweats, hectic tidal fever, coughing of blood (hemoptysis) and night blindness.
This is provided for historical and educational reference only. The Eurasian otter is a protected, threatened species (CITES-listed), and its use is banned or restricted under wildlife-protection law in most jurisdictions; some sources also note the liver as slightly toxic. Do not source or use otter liver. Yin-nourishing plant and mineral substitutes should be used in modern practice.
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Shui Ta Gan is a minor folk-medicine name not catalogued as a headword in the principal modern Chinese Materia Medica references consulted, including Bensky and Gamble, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and standard Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian entries. The literal sense ("water-pagoda-stem" or similar) suggests a wetland species, but no reliable correspondence to a botanical binomial can be established without further regional source material. Pending verified identification, no morphology, parts used or actions can responsibly be assigned.
⚠ Drug Interactions
International commercial trade in any part or derivative of Lutra lutra (CITES Appendix I)
Lutra lutra is listed on Appendix I of CITES, the appendix reserved for species threatened with extinction, which bars international trade in specimens and derivatives for primarily commercial purposes; permits are available only for narrowly defined non-commercial purposes such as scientific exchange. The species is additionally listed on Appendix II of the Bern Convention, Appendix I of the Bonn Convention, and Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitats Directive, and it is protected by national legislation across much of its range, including as a protected species under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance in Hong Kong and as a first-class endangered species and Natural Monument in South Korea. In China, where this drug name originates, all three resident otter species including Lutra lutra are Class II State Key Protected Wild Animals under the 2021 revision of the national list, and are assessed as Endangered on the national red list. Enforcement data show the prohibition is real and routinely breached: an analysis of 161 enforcement cases across fifteen Asian countries recorded close to 6,000 otters seized over 35 years, mostly skins seized in China and India, and otters continue to be taken illegally for the Chinese market. A drug that cannot be legally obtained cannot be legally dispensed, and any material offered as Shui Ta Gan is by that fact suspect.
Clinical note: Do not source, purchase, stock, prescribe or dispense otter liver, and do not accept it from a patient's own supply. Record it in the pharmacopoeia only so that illegal material can be recognised and refused. Practitioners offered this drug should decline and, where their jurisdiction requires it, report the offer to the national CITES management authority or wildlife enforcement body. Nothing in this record should be read as endorsing an animal substitute; the appropriate response to a Yin-deficient cough with haemoptysis is a plant-based prescription chosen on the presenting pattern.
Unidentified animal liver sold as Shui Ta Gan
Because legal supply does not exist, material offered under this name is either illegally taken otter or the liver of some other animal. Neither can be authenticated at the point of dispensing: dried liver has no distinguishing macroscopic features, and no monograph, marker compound or assay exists for Lutrae Jecur in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia or any other pharmacopoeia. There is consequently no dose, no purity specification, no contaminant limit and no safety data of any kind for this drug. The general hazards of unregulated dried animal viscera apply, including microbial and parasitic contamination and undisclosed adulteration, and none of them can be excluded for a given sample.
Clinical note: Treat any product offered as otter liver as an unidentified animal tissue of illegal or unknown provenance and refuse it. There is no authentication step that would make such material acceptable.
Historical Texts
Tu Jing Ben Cao (Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica)
Northern Song dynasty, c. 1061References
- Loy A, Kranz A, Oleynikov A, Roos A, Savage M, Duplaix N. Lutra lutra (amended version of 2021 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T12419A218069689 . IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2022)
- Gomez L, Nguyen MDT. A rapid assessment of the illegal otter trade in Vietnam . European Journal of Wildlife Research (2023) [DOI]
- Gomez L, Leupen BTC, Theng M, Fernandez K, Savage M. Illegal Otter Trade: An Analysis of Seizures in Selected Asian Countries (1980-2015) . IUCN Otter Specialist Group Bulletin (2017)
- Hung N, Law CJ. Lutra lutra(Carnivora: Mustelidae) . Mammalian Species (2016) [DOI]
- Wang DQ-H, Carey MC. Therapeutic uses of animal biles in traditional Chinese medicine: An ethnopharmacological, biophysical chemical and medicinal review . World Journal of Gastroenterology (2014) [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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