Getting to the root of Japanese pick-me-up drinks

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm

NATURE IN SHORT / Getting to the root of Japanese pick-me-up drinks



Kevin Short / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

<snip>I was stunned. This was a 50 milliliter bottle, small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. What could possibly make it so expensive? Intrigued, I began to check the labels on the various types of drinks. Most of them, especially the more expensive types, contained ginseng root, as well as powdered mamushi pit viper and royal jelly, a substance fed to bee larvae that causes them to develop into queens rather than workers.

The most common ingredient in many of the more moderately priced drinks, however, was a substance called Osei, or Polygonatum rhizome extract, made from a plant which was listed as naruko-yuri in Japanese. Several types of drink even featured a drawing of this plant on their boxes. From these drawings I immediately recognized it as a lily that I had seen growing locally on the floor of forests and woodlands.

Later, after some research, I discovered that this lily (Polygonatum falcatum), as well as a closely related species called amadokoro (P. pluriflorum), has long been a popular folk medicine in Japan and China. The active ingredient is found in the rhizome, an underground extension of the plant's stem that spreads out horizontally and is used to store energy. In addition to invigorating tonics, the rhizomes have been used to stimulate production of bodily fluids, relieve nervous tension, and prevent sudden drops in blood sugar levels. More serious applications include heart stimulation and clearing of constricted blood vessels. <snip>


Similar drinks, often derogatorily called "snake oil," can be found in some rural parts of the eastern and southern United States. But generally speaking, interest in this sort of medicine is not nearly as high as in Japan. In the past, however, tonics were much more common. In fact, many of our popular soft drinks started off this way. The granddaddy of them all, of course, was a late 19th century concoction made from cocaine and cola nut, a tree of African origin that contains caffeine. Now that must have been invigorating! We still drink this "coca-cola," but without either of the original plant ingredients. <snip>