Discarded safflower shoots are developed into tea and exported to the U.S.

[Reporter Lee Kang-san, Korea Farmers and Fishermen Newspaper] Jeonnam Agricultural Research and Extension Services (Director Park Hong-jae) developed discarded safflower shoots into tea and exported them to the United States. Safflower is a plant belonging to the Asteraceae family, called safflower in Korean, and was used as an ingredient in rouge and gonji, which were applied to the bride's face at weddings in the past. Currently, in Korea, safflower seeds are used as a health food to prevent osteoarthritis, and safflower flowers are used as a dye. In some countries such as the Middle East, safflower flowers are consumed as tea, but in Korea, it has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Lee Yu-seok, a researcher at the Jeonnam Agricultural Research and Extension Services, has been conducting research on the osteoarthritis prevention functionality of safflower since 2020. He discovered the osteoarthritis prevention effects of quercetin and luteinolin in ...