Herbal medicinal foods: properties and applications

Korean

What is the key question, problem, or need the project will address?

The key question this project will address is what role traditional Korean medicine plays in the daily lives of Koreans, and how traditional medicine is integrated with food and lifestyle. The research will rely on primary sources to show how Korean medicine is intended to work, what the major recipes are, and how those recipes has changed over the years or according to geographic constraints. Modern uses of traditional Korean medicine will also be discussed in the research.

Why is the project important?

Traditional Korean medicine is not documented as well as traditional Chinese medicine or traditional Indian medicine. There is also some fear that some of the knowledge of traditional Korean medicine may be lost without further research. I would like to add to a growing body of literature on the role and function of traditional Korean medicine, focusing on specific issues such as how doctors and their patients integrate the herbs with their foods. This research should contribute to a better understanding of traditional Korean medicine, in the hopes that the traditions will not be lost completely with modernization.

3. What data will be used, how will it be collected and how long will this take?

The data collected will include primary source evidence, which will involve acquiring original written material from libraries. Other primary sources will include interviews with traditional Korean medicine practitioners and community members who use traditional Korean medicine. I intend to gather recipes, and estimate the research will take a period of four to six months.

4. What do you expect to find out and why? What might it tell us about TCM theory/practice?

I expect to learn about the roots of traditional Korean medicine and how it differs from traditional Chinese medicine. I expect to learn about what herbs are used in specific regions of Korea, depending on geography and climate, as well as local food customs. The focus will be on Jecheon province

5. List three key references (such as books, articles or research papers)

This research will rely on primary sources. The first primary source reference for the research is the Mirror of the Eastern Medicine (?

), which is the seminal work of traditional Korean medicine. The second is The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing "Shennong (?

), which shows how traditional Korean medicine derives its roots from traditional Chinese medicine. The third primary source text is from the fifteenth century by Huh Jun (?

), entitled Dong Eui Bo Gam (? ).

6. List possible resource people that will be contacted.