Photo/Illutration Akihiro Yasuda of Taihou Co. in Aomori holds a container filled with holotoxin extracted from sea cucumber broth. (Daichi Itakura)

AOMORI--The medicinal values from broth of a weird-looking invertebrate that lives on the seafloor carry the hopes of a seafood processing company here.

Sea cucumbers caught in Mutsu Bay of Aomori Prefecture are a well-known luxury foodstuff that are exported to other countries around Asia.

In the process of making salted or dried products, sea cucumbers are cooked and boiled in a bubbling pot. This results in large quantities of soup stock, but it has generally just gone to waste.

Taihou Co., a company that processes marine products in Aomori, started taking notice of the liquid a decade ago and began selling extractives from the broth in June.

“It’s very thick and has a strong efficacy,” said Akihiro Yasuda, who is in charge of developing sea cucumber products at Taihou.

In Taihou’s small laboratory, Yasuda, 64, proudly showed multiple cylindrical containers containing a fluffy yellow powder. It was holotoxin, a component of sea cucumber, reduced to powder.

He said the product sells for 200,000 yen ($1,800) a gram.

It has been available since June but only for businesses. The buyers plan to develop new products using the holotoxin.

Holotoxin is known for its antibacterial and sterilizing effects, and holotoxin extracted from sea cucumbers has been used as a remedy for athlete’s foot.

But what Yasuda and others at the company have developed is not the usual holotoxin extracted from sea cucumbers.

Instead they extract holotoxin from the excess cooking water left after sea cucumbers are boiled.

“We had always thrown out the broth of sea cucumber,” Yasuda said.

Taihou has processed salt-cured sea cucumber and dried sea cucumber for export and sold up to 1 billion yen a year.

Sea cucumbers are boiled to wick away moisture. About 200 tons of cooking liquid leftover in the process had been thrown away at Taihou every year.

But Yasuda remembered what he had heard from fishermen.

“Fishermen who catch sea cucumbers told me that their chapped hands and skin got cured, and I had been wondering why,” Yasuda said.

Sea cucumber contains saponin, collagen, holotoxin and other components. Yasuda thought its broth might have such efficacy for skin problems.

From about 10 years ago, Taihou, in cooperation with Hirosaki University in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, started a research project and discovered that the sea cucumber broth contained medically beneficial components like holotoxin.

Taihou’s laboratory, built in 2014, is capable of processing tens of liters of sea cucumber broth a day. But the amount of holotoxin that can be extracted from that volume is only about 0.2 gram.

Yasuda runs the process by himself, on top of his usual office work, such as handling orders and deliveries of sea cucumber products. At a maximum, he can extract about 1 gram of holotoxin per week.

Still, Yasuda is hopeful that demand will increase for the broth.

“We used to throw it away,” he said. “I believe demand will increase when the holotoxin leads to the development of products.”

His biggest challenge is the price.

The company’s 200-square-meter laboratory is too small for mass production. If demand increases and mass production becomes possible, the price will be lowered from the current 200,000 yen per gram, he said.

“If it’s pricey, the holotoxin will only be used in medical products. But once it becomes cheaper, it will be used in more accessible products, such as drinks and hand cream,” Yasuda said.

The annual sea cucumber catch has decreased in recent years while the price has increased, according to Aomori prefectural government and others.

“I would like to make this a pillar of our business by making efficient use of what we used to dump,” Yasuda said.