D.D’s Club

What is Ginseng?

Ginseng
root is native to eastern Asia and North America, and has been in use as a folk medicine and tonic amongst the peoples of China, Korea, Thailand, Viet Nam and Manchuria, as well as amongst Native Americans, for untold thousands of years. Frequently used as a potent preventative rather than a curative, it has also demonstrated tremendous therapeutic benefits for a wide number of conditions. If taken regularly it increases vitality, and can extend your life span. Shanghai
people believe it to give great energy and help remove heat in your body that has built up. The heat is like when you
have pimples, it’s your bodies way lof letting out the internal heat.

A perennial plant, ginseng is often found in heavily wooded areas and requires rich soil to thrive. Ginseng takes several years to mature, with most roots cultivated when the plant is between 3-10 years old. After too many years the
plant and its root can begin to degenerate, and the root may become pitted and wooden.

The plant itself is very attractive, with well shaped green leaves and bright red berries; however it is only the root that has any medicinal value. Its original name means Man Root, due to the shape of the ginseng root which strongly resembles the form of a human body.

Ginseng is a member of the Araliacae family. The American ginseng plant, Panax Quinquefolius, has become in such high demand in Asia that more than 85% of American grown ginseng is exported to asian markets.

GINSENG

The wild ginseng plant and the old-time woodsmen who hunted it for its  valuable roots are both practically extinct. Nowadays, most people have 

never heard the word ginseng; much less are they likely to recognize the  plant or know anything of its history. Many of those former ginseng 

hunters were also trappers. They trapped fur-bearing animals in late fall  and winter when the quality of fur was at its best. Then, in summer and 

early autumn, they used their outdoor skills to find and dig ginseng root  for the drug market. The two occupations naturally went together. Fur 

buyers, such as the old American Fur Company founded by John Jacob  Astor, also bought and sold ginseng root.

The American ginseng trade was started in 1711 when a Jesuit  Missionary among the Iroquois Indians in Canada received a letter from 

another French missionary in China. In it were careful drawings and the  description of a plant whose roots were regarded as a magic cure for all 

sorts of human ailments, both mental and physical. He said the Chinese  would pay almost anything for it, that it was very scarce, and was a 

monopoly of the emperor for whom it was cultivated in closely guarded  gardens. They called it "jin-chen, " meaning "shaped-like-a-man, " 

because branched roots resembling a human form were supposed to be  specially effective. In Canada the Indians soon found a ginseng closely 

resembling the Asiatic species and the first shipment of its dried roots  were sent to China in 1716.

The ginseng sends up a new stem each year from a perennial  underground rootstock. This stem bears three palmately compound 

leaves, each with five irregularly notched leaflets -- three larger leaflets  and two smaller ones -- something like the leaf of a buckeye tree. In the 

center, a globular cluster of 6 to 20 small yellowish-green flowers  appear in midsummer, followed in autumn by half-inch ruby-red 

berries. The root enlarges with age and each year's stem adds a new scar  making it possible to read its age. At 5 years, roots are the size of a little 

finger. One especially large root showing 28 scars weighed 12 ounces  when fresh. Drying shrinks roots to 113 or 1/4 of their fresh weight.

Now extremely scarce, the plant is still native in rich woodlands from  Quebec and Minnesota south to Arkansas and Georgia. It prefers north 

slopes, shaded ravines, and is often associated with sugar maple,  basswood and walnut trees. A few plants still grow in our forest 

preserves but their location is a carefully guarded secret.

Ginseng is one of the very few drug plants exported from the United  States, as well as one of the most costly. Until about 1900 the price 

received by American "seng" hunters and shippers varied from roughly  50 cents to 4 dollars a pound for the dried root. Since then it has risen 

to an all-time high of $24 in 1957. The entire American crop, about  100, 000 pounds annually, is shipped to wholesalers in Hong Kong who 

distribute it in the Orient. The cost to the Chinese consumer is  multiplied many times, often more than its weight in gold -- as much as 

$400 an ounce for a forked root suggesting a human figure.

Ginseng is now grown in carefully tended and artificially shaded  gardens by a few growers. The largest are From Brothers of 

Hamburg, Wisconsin, who have 100 acres under cultivation.   They also have an extensive After  planting the seed, from 5 to 7 years are required to produce a 

marketable root. At present the U. S. Pharmacopoeia says it has no  medicinal value but we Americans should not laugh at the Chinese.

We swallow billions of pills each year for reasons equally silly.