AMOREPACIFIC (President and CEO, Suh Kyung-bae) will conclude MOU for the ‘Development of cosmetic ingredients and products through the study of rare medicinal plants, S. Miltiorrhiza’ with Yangyang-gun at Youngyang county office in North Gyungsang Province on 25th October.  Attending the signing ceremony will be Hak-Hee Kang, CTO of AMOREPACIFIC R&D Center and Young-Taek Kwon, governor of Yangyang-gun.

S. Miltiorrhiza is one of 5 ginsengs in the botanical list. According to the Shinnong Herb Bible, it is regarded as a mild medicine that is harmless for the human body when taken in large doses. In addition, Donguibogam indicates that S. Miltiorrhiza has been used as a medicine to treat gynecologic diseases. S. Miltiorrhiza is also highly regarded as a valuable material for cosmetic products because of its excellent anti-aging effect.

Youngyang-gun in North Gyungsang Province signing on MOU with AMOREPACIFIC became the first the place to grow large volumes of S. Miltiorrhiza in Korea. In 2003, the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science (NIHHS), Rural Development Administration (RDA) developed technology of restoring, establishing and transplanting S. Miltiorrhiza to enable its cultivation in Korea. This technology was transferred to Youngyang-gun in North Gyungsang Province, and S. Miltiorrhiza has been cultivated successfully.

AMOREPACIFIC started the S. Miltiorrhiza project as cosmetic ingredients in 2005, and confirmed the result thatKorean S. Miltiorrhiza contains more than 6 times the key marker materials than the Chinese S. Miltiorrhiza, this through the research on marker materials of S. Miltiorrhiza. The excellent anti-aging effect of S. Miltiorrhiza (MMP-1 control) was also proven and there are two patents pending.

Jun-Cheol Cho, chief of AMOREPACIFIC Skin Science Laboratory said, “We will utilize 'S. Miltiorrhiza', a rare medicinal plant that was successfully cultivated for the first time in Korea, as a high functional ingredient for cosmetics to show products that secure customer's relief sentiment."

In the meantime, AMOREPACIFIC R&D Center is breaking new ground in material and technology research by using AMOREPACIFIC's own technologies consistently with a mid-long term research vision, 'to realize sustainable R&D and develop 'Asian beauty products' by grafting natural materials and high tech biotechnology'.