Britain's Queen Elizabeth II showed great interest and received a gift of it at Korea's Ewha Woman's University. American President Bill Clinton enjoyed it at Seoul's Hyatt Hotel. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il presented it to Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yong during a visit to Pyongyang and Korean President Kim Dae-jung sent it in gratitude to John Dodsworth, IMF representative in Korea. A Korean food chain puts it in its fried chicken recipe and North Korean agents evidently plied ROK soldiers with an a wine version of it during informal but illegal contacts at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom. Northernlight.com search engine on the Internet comes up with at least 4,468 items on it. Over 2,500 papers have been written about it. Some men claim to overcome fleeting bouts of impotence simply by staring at its root eroticism. And some people continue to dream about it -- a tradition that started the whole craze about 1,500 years ago -- and become fantastically wealthy, living, we hope, happily ever after. It always seems to be the talk of the town, since it's evidently the little root that can. It's Korean insam, or "human ginseng," named so because of its sometimes striking resemblance to the human physique.
A Tradition Born from Legend:
According to legend, a certain man with the family name Kang of Kumsan, Kingdom of Paekje got the root rolling on the Korean Peninsula. Having cared for his ailing mother to no avail for years, Kang had a dream one night in which the Mountain God told him to dig up the root of an herb with three red berries near the Cave of Avalokitesvara (Buddhist Bodhisattva of Perfect Compassion), boil it, and feed it to his mother. He did so, and she, of course, recovered, with everybody in town rooting for her. That was in 6th-century Paekje, and insam has since been the root of the Kumsan regional economy. And the tradition continues: Every year or two you can read of a modern day Mr. Kang who has a similar Mountain God dream and discovers sansam ("mountain" or wild ginseng), worth zillions of Korean won, the next day on a mountainside. In this age of precision processing, you can take your pick of Korean insam (Panax Ginseng: "pan" = all, "axos" = cure, or "cure-it-all") -- if you're not lucky enough to find sansam on a mountain -- from capsule, powder, tablet, extract, honey-covered stick or chips, root, wine, gum, tea, syrup, tonic, raw, dried and other forms. Or enjoy it stuffed in boiled chicken, in nutritional rice dishes, in seafood salads, in herbal remedies, even on pizza and in a continuously growing selection of other inventive fusion foods.Science is Verifying Traditional Wisdom: What Koreans, Chinese and others have simply known for centuries is being proved again and again by science -- that Korean insam is good and good for you, as a preventative, an antitoxin, a revitalizer of many functions, and in some instances as a remedy. The latest results, from animal experiments at the Korea insam Research Center (KIRC), are that Korean insam greatly reduces the effects of dioxin while increasing energy levels. Such news is expected to boost the Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corporation's (KT&G) exports of Korean insam to 80-plus nations this year by 28 percent to $105 million. Korean insam offers more ginsenosides, at least 29, than any other ginseng in the world, adding to its traditional fame as an elixer of life. These ginsenosides help the body to overcome the effects of stress, distress, fatigue and certain diseases. Ginsenosides also regulate cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels, and act as anti-inflammatory and anti-convulsant agents. insam also includes an anti-oxident to help slow the aging process. Clinical evidence also suggests that some types of cancerous cells are inhibited by regular ginseng intake, and red insam is a proven restorer of virility and erectile function, perhaps to the dismay of Viagra manufacturers. It's also considered a natural alternative to anabolic steroids for athletes. Personally, I've managed to root out what used to be horrendous jetleg by starting a regimen of red insam a week before a trans-Pacific flight.The list of mental (increased clarity, memory, concentration and alertness) and physical effects grows on and on, and is definitely worth investigating. In addition to scientifically proven results, Korean insam continues to exude a mystical healing quality, perhaps a result of its fascinating shape.
Ideal Growing Conditions for Powerful Products:
The growing conditions around the Kumsan area make the region ideal for producing ginseng so loaded with minerals and nutrients that it usually takes the soil 10-15 years to recover after a harvest. White insam is picked after 4-5 years of very delicate shade farming; and insam left to grow to full maturity in six years is steamed and sun-dried, resulting in caramelization of the root's sugars and giving us the much-prized red variety.Farmed insam gets a 6-month growing season each year in Kumsan, longer than anywhere else in the world, and the area boasts moderate rainfall, good drainage and abundant sunlight. An appreciable day-night temperature variation as well as four distinct seasons also contribute to the outstanding growing conditions there.The Route to the Root:
The 19th Kumsan Ginseng Festival is being held from September 7th through 13th at the medicinal herb markets in Kumsan, which is located in South Ch'ungchong Province. If you're in Korea during that period, you can route your way to the root by highway bus from Seoul, a 2-hour and 40-minute trip; or take a train to Taejon and then an express bus from there. The festival draws about 400,000 visitors each year and events include traditional medical diagnostics; insam luncheons, lectures and harvesting; exhibitions and food fairs; folk art performances; open-air dramas including "The Story of Master Kang"; an international ginseng symposium; insam sauna; insam peeling contests; courses in farmers band music and dance; insam bottle making; and a host of other educational and fun-filled events. Like many other festivals on Korea's growing list of regional cultural events, the 19th Kumsan Ginseng Festival promises to leave you with plenty of memories, all firmly rooted in your mind. And maybe something to dream about, too.To
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