The origin of hamcho

In history, it is recorded that Hamcho has been offered to Chinese Zhou Dynasty about 3000 years ago by Japanese. At the time, the Emperor of Zhou Dynasty was really happy about the tribute, and dedicated it to the ancestors’ graves. In ancient time in Japan, one medical book contained the materials about Hamcho, and another book also recorded the information about hamcho in various names.

Medical herb for folk remedy

Its name “Hamcho” is originated from the word meaning “salty plant”. Its name varies depending on the local regions. So far, many people have used hamcho as a medical herb for folk remedy to heal the symptoms like “sweating after hard-work”, “stomachache” and ”menstrual irregularity”
Entering to the 1990s, people started recognize that hamcho’s effect as a folk remedy. Based on the academic resources collected from Japan. Many local research institutes and academic research institutes have conducted components analysis and animal experiments. Through all these procedures, hamcho has been registered as a food material by Korean Food & Drugs Administration. Then, Dasarang became the first company where hamcho is commercialized.

hamcho as food

In 2001, Dasarang has manufactured hamcho powder, pills, other diet products (special nutrition food), hamcho additives, hamcho salt, and hamcho laver. Due to the restrictions of hamcho habitat, Dasarang has studied how to cultivate hamcho more efficiently in organic way. Then, Dasarang established model complex and offered cultivation technique to the farm. As well, Dasarang runs other business in product development, research, promotional business, and other related works.

Hamcho became a commercial good, starting from Korea to other countries. Hamcho powder, pills, and other fermented products are the most popular healthy food products and it is being used as additives in processed food and spice.

The historical record shows that Eskimo tribes in the Northern America have consumed hamcho as an emergency food during the cold winter, but Americans do not eat hamcho apparently. Long time ago, the U.S. used hamcho as the materials for glass manufacturing, as it is named “glasswort”. Recently, hamcho is used to make salad in Hawaii and Australia has begun hamcho research.
In Japan, hamcho was discovered only in Hokkaido, so Japanese has designated hamcho as a natural monument and only kept on the research. Thus, Japan could not commercialize domestic hamcho and started importing from Korea in since 2010. In China, since 2010, approximately 10 small firms just started manufacturing 2-3 type of products such as hamcho granule and extracts. However, they have quality problems as hamcho growing at Chinese Eastern Coast have pollution issues.
Not only in France, but also in many other European countries, hamcho is used in high-end salad. As well, hamcho-included pickles, alcohols, and breads are commercialized in the market. Also, hamcho is added to high-end lamb steak sold in an European hotel restaurant to get rid of bad smell and to make it softer, which became one of the most famous menu in the restaurant.