The Korean ancestors not only found Insam thousands of years ago and used it for the prevention and treatment of diseases but also developed its cultivation and processing techniques.

It had been called Sincho and Soncho meaning that it is a mysterious herb and then called Thojong meaning that it carries the spirit and energy of fertile soil and Hyolsam meaning that it is a grass root which recuperates human blood.

Later it came to be called Insam as it had the human shape and it was a root preventing and treating all diseases.

It was known to be a specially efficacious medicinal herb from the period of three kingdoms (Koguryo, Paekje and Silla) and used as the best haematic tonic in the period of Koryo and Ri Dynasty.

The people of Koguryo knew that Insam was efficacious for chronic gastritis and gastric ulcer. A book of mid-seventh century "Chongumyobang" tells us that it was used as a medicine.

A Chinese book written 1,500 years ago introduces Insam of Koguryo as a very efficacious root and it carries "Song of Insam".

In Koguryo in the mid-first century B.C. young wild Insam was transplanted and cultivated and the seed of wild Insam was collected and cultivated under trees of mountain areas. With experiences accumulated, Insam cultivation was moved to crop fields in the period of Koryo.

Insam growers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries turned Songdo (Kaesong), the capital of Koryo, into an area of large-scale Insam cultivation, finding it to be a proper soil.

Thus the area became the center of Insam traffic and its trade with neighboring countries began to show life.

Today Insam is not only famous as a mysterious medicine for the cure of all diseases and eternal youth and longevity but also is widely used to retard the aging of skin and add beauty and to prevent various skin diseases and loss of hair by being added to cosmetics and others.