At 10:36 AM 6/14/97 -0700, you wrote:

>I have never heard of Kudzu Root and cannot recall ever seeing
>"isoflavones".  The plant or root picture looks like a stem from an edible
>bulb (? only a guess that it is edible because a lot of the things in Asian
>Health stores that aren't grain or bean related or edible raw)

        Kudzu (or kuzu) root is sold in health food stores that specialize
in Japanese macrobiotic products.   It's sold either as a white powder or as
pieces of the dried white root.  It's used by macrobiotic people as a
thickener for soups and gravies, just like other people would use corn
starch or arrowroot.  It most likely has no special properties, but those
macrobiotic people believe it's better than corn starch, since the Japanese
people use it!  Those macrobiotic people can be so dogmatic!

Harris