Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Sigeumchi, also called pareung, is the Korean name for spinach. Its Latin name is Spinacia oleracea. Cooks blanch the leaves and dress them with sesame oil and garlic to make a side dish called namul.
In Korea it is food first. It is also seen as a green that builds blood and keeps the bowels moving. People eat the most of it in winter and early spring.
Spinach has real food value. But firm human trials on spinach as a treatment are few. Long use in the kitchen is not proof that it treats any disease.
Most of what spinach does comes from its food value, not from a drug-like action. It gives folate, iron, vitamin K, potassium, and fibre.
It is also high in nitrate (a natural salt in leafy greens). The body can turn this into nitric oxide, a gas that helps blood vessels relax.
Trials of nitrate drinks, mostly beet juice, show small drops in blood pressure. Whether a plate of spinach does the same is not clear.
Spinach also holds two eye pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin. They gather in the back of the eye. This may help the eye cope with glare, but proof from spinach itself is thin.
Fresh leaves are the main form. In Korea they are dipped in boiling water for under a minute, drained, then dressed with sesame oil, garlic, and soy or bean paste.
Other forms are frozen leaves, canned leaves, dried powder, raw green juice, and capsules of spinach extract.
Cooked and drained spinach holds less oxalate than raw. A glass of raw juice packs the most oxalate and nitrate at once.
Spinach came from Persia, spread east through China, and reached Korea by the Joseon era. Old Korean farm and food texts list it as a cool-weather green.
In home use it was seen as a green that eases the bowels and builds blood after illness or childbirth. Its place has always been the table more than the herb shelf.
Today it is a fixed part of namul side dishes and of bibimbap.
Some reactions to Sigeumchi (pareung) need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
Get urgent help the same day if a baby who has eaten spinach puree looks grey or blue around the lips or is breathing fast; this needs emergency care.
See a doctor soon if you get sharp pain in your back or side, or blood in your urine, as these can be signs of a kidney stone.
Call your anticoagulation clinic if you take warfarin and your diet has changed a lot, or if you bruise easily, bleed from the gums, or bleed for a long time from small cuts.
See a doctor if you feel weak, have muscle cramps or a fluttering heartbeat and you have kidney problems, as your potassium may be too high.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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