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Ginseng: The Man-Shaped Root
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# : |
14298 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
1,054 Words |
| Author
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Barbara Tufty
Barbara Tufty is a free-lance natural science writer
who lives in Washington, D.C. |
In the mountain forests of ancient Manchuria, on a stormy August night some four thousand years ago, lightning struck a mountain stream that "disintegrated and became transformed into a root endowed with the essence of heavenly fire." That's how the wondrous plant ginseng was created on earth, according to Chinese folklore.
Another legend tells of a farmer in the village of Shangtang in the province of Sheni, during the reign of Sui Wen-ti, an emperor of the Sui dynasty at the end of the sixth century. Every night, the story goes, the farmer heard a strange, imploring voice pleading for help. After a long search, he found the source of the voice: an underground root in the shape of a man--the manifestation of the Spirit of the Ground. When the man-shaped root was dug from the earth, the pleading voice stopped. For centuries afterward, this "sacred king of the herbs" was used as a prime medicine for almost all bodily and mental ills and for rejuvenating the body and spirit.
Today, the mystique of this fascinating plant lives on. Known as sang, tartar root, five-finger, and red berry, the plant is prized by Chinese, Koreans, and other Orientals, who use it to cure disorders of the nerves, lungs, and stomach, and to alleviate ills such as diabetes, anemia, arthritis, rheumatism, and impotence. In America today, it is mostly used as a demulcent and general tonic, particularly in Appalachia, where people use it to calm the heart. American Indians have long used ginseng to strengthen mental powers. Modern Western research has been slow to analyze the medicinal nature of the plant, but independent university researchers have isolated specific glucoside compounds in the root that are associated with anti-fatigue and have effectively alleviated stress in laboratory animals.
With such famed healing properties, ginseng brings high, though fluctuating, prices on the Asian market--as high as $150 a pound for wild plants, or $20 a pound for cultivated. In 1887, wild American ginseng sold for $250 per pound. In South Korea, prices of $1,000, $2,000, even $10,000 have been paid for one perfect root.
The oriental species, Panax ginseng, grows in shaded deciduous forests in China, Korea, Japan, and the eastern part of Russia. The American species, Panax quinquefolius, grows mainly in the eastern part of North America, where the mountains and forests resemble those of China, and has now been introduced in the northwestern United States.
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