A creeper herb which can be processed into a black jelly dessert traditionally called the "Divine Grass" in Taiwan, is promising to become one of the nation's most lucrative cash crops, sources from the Council of Agriculture reported yesterday.
The "Divine Grass," whose botanical name is mesona, has recently been designated by the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture as a "star" cash crop to be aggressively promoted in northern Taiwan after council researchers found that mesona has an average cost efficiency of NT$280,000 (US$8,116) per hectare of plantation, compared with NT$80,000 (US$2,319) per hectare of paddy for rice.
Mesona, a creeper herbaceous plant, has been casually planted by farmers islandwide at the foot of orchard plants or beside vegetable fields and has until now been considered only an insignificant by-product of farming.
After conducting research for 10 years, the council's Agricultural Improvement Station in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, successfully developed a new, revised species of Taiwanese mesona, naming it the "Taoyuan No. 1."
According to the council researchers, "Taoyuan No. 1" is best suited for cultivation in the northern Taiwan counties of Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli, and the herb's unique properties make it suitable for processing into a high-added-value instant nutritious dessert food which can be mass-produced for commercial sale.
"Taoyuan No. 1" mesona is scientifically-proven to contain a high percentage of ursolic acid and oleanolic acid -- good anti-oxidant agents which are also effective at combating tumors and lowering blood sugar levels, the researchers said.
"Taoyuan No. 1" mesona requires a much smaller amount of starch when it is processed into "Divine Grass Jelly" as it has much stronger gelatin-forming characteristics than do other dried mesona varieties which used to be imported from China and Indonesia to be sold to Taiwan snack dealers at lower prices, the researchers pointed out.
Recently, Japanese researchers confirmed that mesona indeed has certain properties that have medical value and are planning to use the herb to produce a bottled anti-cancer "functional drink," according to the Taoyuan researchers.
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