This column is quotated from Korean leading major daily newspaper 'The Korea Times'.(English Printed)1999.4.14

-The Korea times culture corner(99'4.14) quotated-

Wormwood Leaves and Cakes Ancient Symbols of Imm

ortality

By Lee Won-sop [In Search of Ancient Vitality]

Wormwood Leaves and Cakes Ancient Symbols of Immortality

04/14(수) 16:37

Western cakes and bread are usually baked using yeast as a main ingredient. However, 90 percent of Korean cakes prepared with sticky or non-sticky rice are made without using yeast.

Among these cakes the most popular is the wormwood cake. The cake made using non-sticky rice is called ``Maeshiroo'' cake and the one made using sticky rice is called ``Chapsal'' cake.

The wormwood cake is made by pounding a lump of cooked sticky rice with a wooden mallet on a wooden pedestal, adding wormwood during the process. The final cakes, which are cut up into bite-size pieces, are rolled in soybean powder. Called ``Chongehdanja'' originally, it was consumed by the elderly as a health food in Korean royal courts.

In October 1827, the reigning King Sunjo (1790-1834) celebrated the 40th birthday of Queen Sunwon in his 28th year on the throne with a grand feast at Kyongbok palace, in a building called ``Jakyungjun.'' Wormwood cake or Chongehdanja was a featured part of the banquet menu.

Many kings in the Choson Dynasty died under the age of 50, while many queens frequently lived to be over 60 years of age. Hence, a royal member who met his 40th birthday was treated as an elder and in this case the queen was given a special feast by the king. There is an old saying in Korea that a woman who enjoys wormwood cake made with sticky rice will live a long and healthy life.

The highest quality young wormwood harvested for royal consumption was from Hwado township in the Kanghwa district of Inchon city in Kyonggi province. It was best to collect it before May, by the lunar calender, and it was very highly prized. The most favored ground for growing wormwood was on Kanghwa island as the combination of sea breeze and sunshine was considered vital for wormwood to attain its full medicinal properties.

Wormwood rice cakes made with non-sticky rice and wormwood harvested from Kanghwa island were presented as a diplomatic gift by Korea to Japan, since old times. Traditional wisdom has it in China and Korea that intertwining wormwood with a thread and inserting the piece in the hair of women will shield them from misfortune.

In old times, when a bride on her way to the house of her in-laws had a nose bleed due to her menstruation period, while delivering a gift of duck eggs, then she was laid in a wormwood field and the plant was inserted into her nostrils to stem the bleeding, alleviate her stomach cramps and soothe her migraine headache. Such medicinal properties of wormwood on soothing menstrual symptoms started the tradition of using the plant as a hemostatic medicine which is still used today. The wormwood used for such purposes was also best harvested before the lunar month of May.

The wormwood species called ``Injingo'' which grows during all four seasons is good for bad liver, and is prepared for consumption by making the plant into taffy covered with bean powder. Wormwood is now known to contain vitamins B, C and D, along with a chemical called Adenin Colin, but a mysterious yet undiscovered ingredient makes the plant suited for healing liver jaundice. Dried wormwood burned inside a room creates a smoke which sterilizes the room and helps peripheral blood circulation and various bodily aches.

The wormwood is also good for menstrual cramps and arthritis, when the plant is mixed in the proportion of 10 grams of wormwood with 100 grams of sticky rice with a little salt thrown in to make the cakes which are then eaten. The wormwood is also good for recovering from hangovers when boiled and ingested as soup and also alleviates pesticide poisoning prevalent due to modern agricultural methods.

A local folk legend even has it that when dried wormwood is twisted into the form of a tiger and hung in places, then it prevents the spirits which cause diseases from entering the area.

A Chinese female mystic called ``Suhwangmoh'' is said to have lived for several hundred years, and her secret is purported to have been the consumption of wormwood, regarded as a spiritually endowed plant, according to Taoism.

Particularly, wormwood mixed with sticky rice powder and boiled in water and then dipped in honey water has beneficial properties for the health of women and the elderly. Wormwood juice was also used as green ink for painting, and in times of famine the plant was mixed with barley or rice powder and made into a famine relief food called ``Sukgooleh,'' which was cherished in old times.

Finally, wormwood, garlic and ginseng are symbols of immortality, since the legendary founding of the nation populated by the Korean race in local folk tales. The medicinal properties of wormwood are commonly recognized not only in Korea, but in China and Japan as well.

As such, Korean wormwood is the new focus of international attention as an alternative medicine in the area of self-healing, which is gaining followers in the global medical community.

* * *

Lee Won-sop, who writes this bi-weekly column in collaboration with Times staff reporter Choe Young-min, is president of Yangmyonghoe, a group of scholars and farmers who try to revive traditional esoteric methods seeking a healthy life and longevity

2009.11.7.

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