Korean Plant Names Index

Insect Resource

Korea Biodiversity Information System > Insect Resource > Resource Insects > Edible/Medicinal Resources

Honey bees have long continued with human beings as an indirect food resource by providing honey.
There is much historical evidence for the use of edible insects, and even today, there are a lot of examples of edible insects all over the world.
Several countries in Africa and the Middle East eat grasshoppers, and in China and Thailand, several kinds of insect cuisine, including Dendrolimus spectabilis and Cybister japonicas, are still popular today.
In Korea, they have been major alternative food resources, including grasshoppers and the pupae of Bombyx mori, since the past. In Japan, grasshoppers are served as a specialty in some regions
The history of insects as an edible resource is extremely long. Some insects are considered to be food and good medicine.
China has had the tradition of “Sikyakdongwon” (食藥同源) (food and medicine having the same origin) for a long time and values medicine and rejuvenation in the same way, so this has attracted attention from people at home and abroad. China has records of using ants in their cuisine 3,000 years ago, and there are around 3,600 insect species regarded as worthy of being edible resources throughout the world. Among them, 1,560 species of Lepidoptera, 735 species of Orthoptera, 475 species of Coleoptera and another 300 species are known already, and about 370 species have been developed as food.

Main useful insect species
Main usage	Main insect species
Use as food	Soldier beetles, Oxya japonica, silkworms, Cicadas, Honeybee larvae, termites, Gampsocleis sedakovi, Mimela splendens, etc.

Korea’s ancestors used some insects to cure diseases.
In the book “Donguibogam,” about 95 species of medicinal insects were recorded.
The “Compendium of Materia Medica,” a Chinese work from the Ming Dynasty, has records of 106 species of medical insects.

Main useful insect species
Main usage	Main insect species
Material for development of new Chinese (herbal) medicine.	Allomyrina dichotoma, Lucanus maculifemoratus, and Cybister japonicus

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