Talk:Konjac

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Contents

[edit] Common names

Elephant foot and Elephant yam (or elephant foot yam) refer to Amorphophallus paeoniifoluis, not A. konjac.

[edit] Corm vs. tuber

I believe that it is a corm and not a tuber (here is an excellent picture), and that references to the "konjac tuber" are made loosely. — Pekinensis 16:54, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I have reverted it to corm. — Pekinensis 7 July 2005 19:11 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus talks about tubers and doesn't mention corms, does that need fixing then? --Oolong (talk) 21:55, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Taste

It seems odd to write "its taste is best described as nondescript". Wouldn't a better way would be to write "It's taste is difficult to describe" or "It has an undescribable taste"? 8 July 2005 21:55 (UTC)

I changed it, among other things. As I have never seen konjac referred to as "魔芋" in Chinese/Mandarin, and it is always "蒟蒻" on packaging (though sometimes with incorrect characters), I have changed that part as well.Terukiyo 02:19, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese name

"磨芋" (not "魔芋" as previously claimed) seems to be a correct name for konjac in Chinese, or at least Sichuanese; in addition to Shiba's book, Google turns up about 20,000 hits on it, including what appears to be a recipe for stir-fried konjac and a descriptive article on konjac cultivation. Perhaps someone fluent in Chinese can follow up on this. Zogmeister 00:05, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd hate to refer to Google as any kind of authority. After all, if 90% of pages found on Google claim that the Earth is flat or that the Apollo landing on the Moon is a forgery, that still doesn't make it right. Having said that, if you still want to tally from Google, "磨芋" gets 13,100 hits today. "魔芋" gets 683,000 hits. And limit searches to pages only in Chinese, "蒟蒻" gets you 67,200 (simplified) + 237,000 (traditional). Based on the last, you might even get a naive impression that there are more people literate in tradition Chinese than simplified. Since a whole lot of plants in the Amorphophallus genus are called "魔芋" (including the Amorphophallus titanium), how about just considering the translation approximate anyway?

[edit] Anime and manga references

I would strongly recommend the removal of this section. Here is a nice quote from User:Wikimachine that summarises the reasoning:

As per WikiProject Military history Popular Culture guideline,

"In popular culture" sections should be avoided unless the subject has had a well-cited and notable impact on popular culture. If present, the section should be a prose discussion of the subject's cultural significance, cited from reliable sources. In particular, the following should be avoided:
  • Compendiums of every trivial appearance of the subject in pop culture (trivia)
  • Unsupported speculation about cultural significance or fictional likenesses (original research)
This tends to be a problem in articles on military hardware (i.e. weapons, vehicles, etc.); for example, the Mauser K98 and the M1 Garand may appear in any World War II film, and their many appearances don't warrant an exhaustive list. On the other hand, a discussion of the Webley representing a stereotypical British revolver, or a conceptual artist's public response to the symbolism of the East European tank monument, are certainly notable.
I suggest getting rid of the popular culture section. It sounds pretty ridiculous. Listing every movies and games like Samurai Xtreeme Superhowerkdsf stuffs and junks is stupid.

Honestly, Japanese anime and manga references in a multicultural botanical/culinary article look extremely unprofessional, I think. Erk|Talk -- I like traffic lights -- 06:58, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I removed the section. I paste it here for reference:

[edit] References in Anime and Manga

  • In the Japanese comic Doraemon, the main character Nobita eats a piece of Hon'yaku-Konnyaku (literally translation konjac), obtained from Doraemon's four-dimensional belly pouch, to understand and speak any language.
  • In the Japanese comic and TV animated series Lupin III (Lupin the 3rd), Goemon Ishikawa's sword can cut through steel girders but not konnyaku jelly.
  • Konnyaku is also used for several side-jokes in Yotsuba&!. Yotsuba asks her dad what his job is, he answers "Honyakuka" (translator) and she misinterprets this as a "Konnyakuya" (maker of konnyaku). This leads other characters to believe that since he doesn't talk much about his job, he must be keeping trade secrets for making high-quality konnyaku.
  • As one of several food-based items with consistent jokes in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, the most infamous regards when Tokoro Tennosuke (Jelly Jiggler) equating the power of an evil force with that of konnyaku when comparing it to chart of various gelatinous/jiggly foods. Not coincidently, the top of his chart is tokoroten, which is what he's made of!
  • In "Kanon", Yuuichi caught Makoto digging through the fridge for a midnight snack; Yuuichi then dropped a Konnyaku down Makoto's shirt.The next day, Makoto tried to get revenge on Yuuichi by putting Konnyaku on his face while he's asleep. Yuuichi wakes up though, and forces her to eat it.

[edit] Pharmaceutical Use

Amorphophallus konjac is, I believe, the active ingredient, or at least some part of the diet pill lipozene, could someone with more knowledge on the subject add this to the article? Thanks, Leftwing07 06:42, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, a part of the plant is used in Lipozene. I've added that into the article--Kedalfax 14:09, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Confectionary use discontinued?

I remember a few years ago eating Konjac Jelly bites, chewy bits of Konjac embedded in jelly and packaged in bite-sized cups. However, the ones that are sold now do not contain Konjac, and in fact the brand I'm eating now "ABC Coconut Jelly" have the words "CONTAINS NO KONJAC" right across the centre of the peel-off lid of each cup. I rather liked the texture of the konjac bits. Product page http://tsanglin.com.tw/english/food/food.htm also says "The product does not contain any konjac." What's the story behind this?

I assume you're in the US. Were you aware of the FDA recall on the product? http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/topics/konjac.html —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.43.34.23 (talk) 18:55, 22 December 2006 (UTC).