There are a great number of world-famous specialities in the DPRK, the land of beautiful mountains and rivers, and among them is Koryo Insam.
Koryo Insam, a special medicinal plant in the DPRK with a time-honoured tradition, has such a mysterious and unique medicinal effect that it is well-known all over the world as a cure-all and a tonic bringing eternal youth.
Even though a lot of kinds of plants in the insam(jinseng) family are growing and are being cultivated in many countries and regions in the world, none of them is more effective, greater in demand and more time-honoured than it.
The word insam originated from its root which resembles a human body. We call those growing naturally in the mountains wild insam while those cultivated artificially is called insam.
Well-known insam plants that have been used by people all around the world so far include Koryo(Korean) Insam, Chinese Insam(Samchil), Japanese Insam(Jukjol insam), Siberian Insam(eleuterococcus senticosus), Western Insam(Hwagisam), etc.
The most famous of all these is none other than Koryo Insam.
The custom of cultivating and using Koryo Insam was nominated as part of the national intangible cultural heritage and the method of cultivating and processing it has still been inherited.
It is classified into two according to the processing method: hongsam(red) and paeksam(white).
Hongsam is insam steamed and dried at a certain temperature and paeksam refers to insam which is cleaned and dried. Insam in its original state is called susam.
As insam is rich in essential amino acid, various vitamins and minerals, etc., it is used as a basic ingredient for a variety of Koryo medicine and tonics.
It, in addition, renews vigor, relieves fatigue, improves mental and physical abilities and promotes health.
Nowadays a large number of insam products such as insam tea, insam extract, insam liquor, insam sweet medicine, etc. are making an active contribution to the improvement of our people’s health and cosmetics produced with insam as major ingredients are also in great demand.
A foreign specialist in crude drug wrote that the value of insam is represented clearly by the international market price and Koryo Insam cultivated in the DPRK is twice to four times more expensive than those from China or Japan although they are of the same kind, and that it is mainly attributable to the cultivation techniques including choice of superior kind, fertile soil, scientific manuring and prevention from blights and harmful insects.
Under the wise leadership and warm care of our Party, farms, factories and institutes for professional cultivation, processing and research are well established in Kaesong, the original home of insam, and they are working hard to conserve and preserve the peculiar features of Kaesong Koryo Insam, a speciality of our country, and to boost its yield.
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