- Type
- Roots & Stems
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Season
- Spring·Fall
- Sowing
- Transplant
Atractylodes
Atractylodes ovata
Essential oils and lactones · shoots as a green, rhizome as baekchul
Atractylodes is a daisy-family perennial of sunny mountain slopes. Its spring shoots push up under a coat of silvery down, and picked at that stage and blanched they make a fragrant mountain green. As the plant grows the leaves cut deeply, fine spines set along their margins, and white flowers open in autumn. The thickened rhizome is dried and traded as baekchul, and that part is handled as a herbal material rather than as a vegetable. The Donguibogam lists baekchul in its Herb section and records the Korean name as sapdyut bulhwi (sapdyut root). It gives a warm nature, a taste both bitter and sweet, and no toxicity, and says the plant grows in the mountains and is found everywhere. Its form is thick and blunt with a faintly brown cast, its scent and taste slightly pungent and bitter but not fierce, and it also goes by the name Geollyeokga. The entry adds that the older materia medica had no separate names for changchul and baekchul, that baekchul has been much used in recent times, and that the root is steeped half a day in rice-washing water and the crown removed before use.
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Where It Grows
- Main producer It is grown in quantity in Zhejiang, Anhui, and Hubei. Note, though, that what China raises as baizhu — the white atractylodes rhizome of the herbal trade — is Atractylodes macrocephala, a different species from sapju.
- Wild population Sapju (Atractylodes ovata) grows wild on sunny mountain slopes, and it is also farmed on a small scale in the mountains of Gangwon and North Gyeongsang.
- Wild population The same species grows wild in mountain country from Honshu southward.
The Atractylodes group is made up of herbaceous plants of temperate East Asian mountain country, ranging across Korea, China, and Japan and into northeastern China. In markets where the names overlap, several species end up mixed together: Korea's sapju (Atractylodes ovata), the large-flowered A. macrocephala that China grows on a large scale, and the narrow-leaved A. lancea, traded as cangzhu (an herbal-trade name for its rhizome), are all distinct species — so any map that shades them in together needs to say which species it means.
- Optimum
- 15~22℃
- Range
- 5~30℃
- Hardiness
- Hardy
Atractylodes grows on sunny mountain slopes where summers stay cool and the ground drains freely. When days above 30℃ string together, the leaves suffer, and where water pools, the rhizome rots that same year. In winter the above-ground growth withers away and the plant overwinters as its rhizome.
Harvested 2–3 years after planting. Set out seedlings in spring and you can begin picking young shoots the following year, but the thickened rhizome is dug only after two or three years of growth, in autumn once the leaves have withered. The year you plant and the year you harvest are not the same.
In Korea Nationwide
Give it a sunny mountain slope and it comes up nationwide. Young shoots are gathered in spring; to harvest the rhizome, though, you want mountain ground with cool summers and good drainage.
How to grow
- Light
- Sunny, but with some cover from the fiercest midsummer sun. Conditions like a mountain slope suit it
- Soil and depth
- Free-draining soil with grit mixed in, at least 30cm deep. Standing water rots the rhizome
- Spacing
- 30 to 40cm between plants, wider if the rhizome is the goal
- Watering
- Water when the surface dries. In the rainy season give none at all and simply check that it drains
- Feeding
- Compost at planting and one feed the following spring. Heavy nitrogen gives big leaves and a thin rhizome
- Harvest
- Shoots in April and May, cut while the downy shoot is about a finger long. The rhizome comes up after two or three years, in autumn once the leaves have died back
What makes the difference. Blanch the shoots, rinse cold, wring them dry and dress them. Knock the soil off a lifted rhizome, trim the fine roots and dry it in the shade
Why this one is harder. The rhizome means waiting two or three years, and a single waterlogged season in that time takes the whole plant. Where drainage cannot be fixed, keep it as a shoot crop only
Common problems
- Aphids You will see Colonies on the tips of new spring shoots What to do Wash them off with water. Do not spray a plant whose shoots are to be picked
- Root rot You will see The whole plant wilts after the rainy season and the lifted rhizome is soft What to do Raise the bed and avoid spots where water sits. Dig out rotted crowns and do not replant in the same place
- Powdery mildew You will see White dust on the upper leaves towards the end of summer What to do Widen the spacing and thin the lower leaves for airflow. Remove affected leaves
This page describes how a crop is grown and used. It does not claim health effects for any food, nor is it intended to prevent or treat disease. Component and study notes are references only and do not mean the same result occurs in people. Consult a medical professional about health concerns.
Health Benefits
The old record — baekchul (白朮). The Donguibogam lists it in the Herb section as baekchul and records the Korean name as sapdyut bulhwi (sapdyut root). It gives a warm nature, a taste both bitter and sweet, and no toxicity. The plant grows in the mountains and is found everywhere, it says, and its form is thick and blunt with a faintly brown cast. Its scent and taste are slightly pungent and bitter but not fierce, and it also goes by the name Geollyeokga. The entry adds that the older materia medica had no names separating changchul from baekchul and that baekchul has been much used in recent times, and it records the preparation: steeped half a day in rice-washing water, with the crown removed. What an old medical text wrote differs from how it is judged today.
Lactones of the genus Atractylodes. Analyses repeatedly report the isolation of essential oils and atractylenolide-type lactones from the rhizomes of Atractylodes species. These are compositional analyses and have no bearing on disease.
How changchul and baekchul divided. The original records that the older materia medica had no names separating changchul from baekchul, and that baekchul came into wide use in more recent times. Several Atractylodes species are still traded today under those two names. This concerns how the names are used.
Nutrition
- Essential oils (in the rhizome) — the aromatic group reported in the genus Atractylodes
- Lactone compounds (isolated from Atractylodes rhizomes) — the compounds known as atractylenolides
- Dietary fibre (young shoots and stalks) — the basis of the bite that survives blanching
Only the young shoot is eaten as a green The edible part is the spring shoot that comes up under silvery down. Once the leaves open and fine spines set along the margins, blanching will not soften them. The window runs April to May.
How it is prepared The young shoots are strongly scented with a bitter edge, so they go into boiling water and then straight into cold. Throw the blanching water away. If bitterness remains, soak them briefly in cold water and wring them out.
Aromatics of the genus Atractylodes Analyses repeatedly report the isolation of essential oils and atractylenolide-type lactones from Atractylodes rhizomes. This entry stays with the compositional record.
Steeping in rice-washing water The original says to steep the root half a day in rice-washing water and remove the crown before use. Steeping in rice water survives today as a way of drawing out bitterness and harshness. It belongs to handling the rhizome, though; for the shoots eaten as a green, blanching is enough.
Pairings
○ Dressed with perilla oil — Dress the blanched shoots with perilla oil and salt, nothing more. It is a strongly scented mountain green, so shallow seasoning keeps the flavour. Eat it straight away.
○ Jangajji — Wash unblanched shoots, dry them off and pour over a cooled boil-up of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Boil the liquid again three days later, cool it and pour it back, and the shoots stay firm. The scent holds for a long time.
○ Pan-fried in batter — Coat the blanched shoots thinly and pan-fry them. Score the thick base so it cooks through evenly. Frying softens the aroma, which suits anyone trying it for the first time.
△ Digging roots in the hills — Roots on a mountainside are a forest product belonging to a landowner or to the body managing state forest, and lifting the root removes the plant from that spot for good. Do not dig without permission. If you need the rhizome, buy cultivated material and take only a few shoots in the hills.
△ Strong root decoctions over long periods — The rhizome is the herbal part traded as baekchul; the green this guide covers is the young shoot. Do not boil dug or bought root strong and drink it like water over long stretches on your own judgement. If you take prescribed medicine or are pregnant, do not layer it on — tell your clinician first.
△ Daisy-family shoots look alike — In early spring many daisy-family shoots resemble one another, and some are not eaten. The atractylodes shoot is densely covered in silvery down, has not yet cut into lobes, and shows a reddish base; grown leaves carry fine spines along the margin. If every point does not match, do not pick it.
Varieties
- Sapju (Atractylodes ovata) (seedling) — The common species on Korean mountains. Its dried rhizome is used as baekchul
- Changchul-type species (seedling) — The other species traded as changchul. Thinner rhizomes with frequent nodes
- Cultivated baekchul lines (seedling) — Field-grown selections for trade. Thick, even rhizomes
Source: Donguibogam, Herb Section 白朮 · Rural Development Administration (Nongsaro)