The Korean ancestors had long cultivated insam to use it as medicine or health food materials. Insam is rich in various kinds of glycoside necessary for human health and longevity, essential amino acid, vitamins and minerals.

According to old documents, people of Koguryo (B.C. 277-A.D. 668) transplanted young wild insam or planted seed of wild insam under trees in a mountainous area in the mid-first century B.C. and those of Paekje (late 1st century B.C.-660), too, planted wild insam in fertile forest soil in the late 1st century B.C.

Insam cultivation got brisker in the period of Koryo (918-1392) and Kaesong area became a hub of insam cultivation and processing in the 11th-12th centuries for its good physiographic conditions and progress in commerce. Since its export was started, insam had been widely known to the world as Koryo Insam or Kaesong Insam.

Today, in the DPRK such goods are produced with insam as tea, essence and liquor to promote the citizens' health. Cosmetics made with insam as raw material are winning a great popularity.

Insam liquors, produced at the Kaesong Koryo Insam Liquor Factory, won gold medals in various international trade fairs.