Artemisia princeps, also called ssuk, Korean wormwood, Korean mugwort, and Japanese mugwort in English, is an Asian plant species in the sunflower family, native to China, Japan, and Korea. It is a perennial, very vigorous plant that grows to 1.2 meters. This species spreads rapidly by means of underground stolons and can become invasive. It bears small, buff-colored flowers from July to November which are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by wind. The leaves are feather shaped, scalloped and light green, with white dense fuzz on the underside.
Video Artemisia princeps
Uses
Culinary
Leaves and young seedlings can be eaten raw or cooked. They can also be used in salads and soups after removal of the bitterness.
Japan
In Japan it is called yomogi (?) and the leaves are sometimes blanched and added to soups or rice. Its leaves, along with those of hahagohusa, are a fundamental ingredient in kusa mochi (literally "grass cake"), a Japanese confectionery, to which it imparts its fresh, springlike fragrance and vivid green coloring.
The young leaves can be lightly boiled before being pounded and added to glutinous rice dumplings known as mochi to which they give a pleasant colour, aroma and flavour. Mugwort mochi can be found in many North American health food stores.
Korea
It is also widely used in Korean cuisine and also as medicine. It is used for making tteok (rice cake), jeon (Korean style pancake), ssuk kimchi, (???), ssukguk (??, soup made with ssuk) and so forth.
Medicinal
Artemisia princeps is one of the species of mugwort used as moxa in Moxibustion, a traditional medical practice of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal and Vietnam. An evaluation of the efficacy of the smoke and water extracts of the herb found that both preparations inhibited the growth of a specific line of breast cancer cells in vitro. Phenolics from A. princeps (caffeoylquinic acids (CQA) such as 3-CQA (chlorogenic acid), 4-CQA, 5-CQA (neochlorogenic acid), 1,5-diCQA, 3,4-diCQA, 3,5-diCQA and 4,5-diCQA) alleviated the oxidative stress and enhanced the viability of certain neuronal cells in vitro.
China
In China it is known as huanghua ai (???, literally yellow-flower mugwort).
Maps Artemisia princeps
In culture
Myth
Korea
In Korea, it is called ssuk (?) or tarae ssuk (???) which is deeply related to Dangun Sinhwa (????), legend of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom. To ancient people in Korea, ssuk was one of the food that was believed to have medicinal or religious value. In the foundation myth of Gojoseon in 2333 BCE, eating nothing but 20 cloves of garlic and a bundle of ssuk for 100 days let a bear be transformed into a woman.
See also
- Kampo herb list
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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