Saccharina Japonica

Saccharina japonica (Dashi kombu) is a marine species of Phaeophyceae (brown algae), a type of kelp or seaweed, that is extensively cultivated in China, Japan and Korea.

A commercially important species, Saccharina japonica is known as kombu (in China haidai, in Korea dasima), an important food from Japan. Large harvests are produced by rope cultivation, a simple method of growing seaweeds by attaching them to floating ropes in the ocean.

The species is native to Japan, but has been cultivated in China, Japan, Russia, France, and Korea. It is one of the two most consumed species of kelp in China and Japan. The harvest is also used for the production of alginates, with China producing up to ten thousand tonnes of the product each year.

It is used under the natural Brown Seaweed Extract form (Laminaria Japonica) as a radioactive detoxifying agent by a team of Russian Scientists that found this remarkable plant medicine whose properties could grab onto heavy metals and radioactive minerals while protecting the thyroid metabolism and the GI track.

The species was transferred to Saccharina in 2006. Three synonyms for this species name are Laminaria japonica J.E. Areschoug 1851, its variety Laminaria japonica var. ochotensis (Miyabe) Okamura 1936, and Laminaria ochotensis Miyabe 1902.