Wakame: The Nutrient-Rich Vegetable From The Deep Sea

According to data from China Customs, from January to July 2025, China's exports of dried wakame seaweed reached 11.42 tons, with an export value of $86,900. The average export price was $7,600 per ton. In terms of export destinations, wakame was primarily exported to Mongolia, Vietnam, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, and other regions. During the January-July period in 2025, the export values to these countries were $30,000, $25,400, $15,900, $7,400, and $5,800, respectively.

Wakame, also known as Undaria pinnatifida or sea mustard, is a temperate seaweed species primarily found in coastal regions of China. Its blade features feather-like lobes resembling a skirt, hence the name "wakame" (meaning "ribbon" in Japanese). Renowned for its delicate flavor, wakame is rich in iodine, calcium, iron, and various vitamins, earning it the title "King of Seaweeds."

Originally endemic to the northwestern Pacific, wakame has spread globally through international trade and shipping-its reproductive cells often transported via oyster shells or ballast water. To date, it has been documented in waters of France, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and other regions.

China is the world's leading producer of wakame, with an output of 206,000 tons in 2022. The provinces of Liaoning and Shandong serve as the country's primary cultivation hubs.

Wakame is widely distributed along China's coastal regions. Among these, Dalian stands as the country's largest wakame production base, consistently leading in both cultivation area and output. Located at 39°N latitude, the waters of Dalian host the largest seaweed bed in the northern Yellow Sea. Thanks to excellent water quality and unique temperature conditions, the area provides an ideal environment for wakame growth.

Wakame possesses significant nutritional and medicinal value. It is rich not only in proteins, vitamins, and minerals, but also contains a variety of bioactive compounds with unique physiological functions, such as alginic acid, fucoidan, mannitol, highly unsaturated fatty acids, fucosterol, organic iodine, steroidal compounds, and dietary fiber. These active components exhibit multiple biological activities and demonstrate beneficial effects in areas including antiviral and antitumor actions, blood pressure reduction, weight management, and the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

In ancient China, wakame was commonly used as a medicinal herb. Yao Kecheng of the Ming Dynasty recorded in Shi Liao Ben Cao (Food Therapy Materia Medica) that it could "soften hard masses, dissipate nodules, reduce swelling, and promote diuresis." Similar accounts appear in Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu) and Wu Pu's Materia Medica (Wu Pu Ben Cao).

By the 20th century, Japanese researchers had already identified compounds such as fucoidan, dietary fiber, and fucosterol in wakame, leading to its widespread use in health products, skincare items, capsules, and pills. In 2004, a research team at Hokkaido University experimentally demonstrated that "fucoxanthin" from brown algae like wakame and kelp also exhibits anti-obesity effects.

Fucoidan and fucosterol in wakame help regulate blood lipids and reduce cholesterol, while its anticoagulant properties help prevent thrombosis such as cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Wakame is also rich in essential minerals-its calcium content is more than 10 times that of milk, known as the "king of calcium sources," and it is abundant in iodine. Additionally, it contains trace elements like magnesium, iron, zinc, sodium, and potassium.