Saccharina japonica

Saccharina japonica is a marine species of the Phaeophyceae (brown algae) plant, a type of kelp or seaweed, which is extensively cultivated on ropes between the seas of China, Japan and Korea. It is widely eaten in East Asia. A commercially important species, "S. japonica" is also called ma-konbu () in Japanese, dasima () in Korean and hǎidài () in Chinese. Large harvests are produced by rope cultivation which is a simple method of growing seaweeds by attaching them to floating ropes in the ocean.
The species has been cultivated in China, Japan, Korea, Russia and France. It is one of the two most consumed species of kelp in China and Japan. "Saccharina japonica" is also used for the production of alginates, with China producing up to ten thousand tons of the product each year.
Consuming excessive "S. japonica" suppresses thyroid function.
Nomenclature.
The species was transferred to "Saccharina" in 2006. Three synonyms for this species name are "Laminaria japonica" (J. E. Areschoug 1851), its variety "Laminaria japonica" var. "ochotensis" (Miyabe & Okamura 1936) and "Laminaria ochotensis" (Miyabe 1902).
Cultivation.
With the development of cultivation technology, though over 90% of Japanese kombu is cultivated mostly in Hokkaidō, production can also be found as far as south of the Seto Inland Sea.
Culinary use.
Korea.
In Korean cuisine, "dasima" is used to make broth, deep-fried into "bugak" or "twigak" (coated and uncoated fries), pickled in soy sauce as "jangajji", and eaten raw as a sea vegetable for "ssam" (wraps).
It is also used to make "dasima-cha" (kelp tea).
"Cheonsa-chae" (kelp noodles) is made from the alginic acid from "dasima".