Eleutherococcus senticosus Seeds | Siberian Ginseng
LATIN NAME: Eleutherococcus senticosus
COMMON NAME: Siberian Ginseng
Plant Profile
Siberian ginseng is not a ginseng and not a tree. It is a suckering shrub of the cool forests of north-east Asia, two to three metres high, with several upright stems rising from a creeping rootstock and a formidable armoury of downward-pointing spines along every one of them. The leaves are palmate, with five stalked leaflets, and they sit in a whorl-like arrangement at the top of each stem. Small, greenish, dioecious flowers appear in mid-summer on umbels, and on female plants they are followed by rounded black berries. It grows in mixed forest from the Russian Far East through Manchuria and Korea to Japan, usually in light woodland on moist, acid soil, and it spreads by rhizome into loose colonies rather than standing as single plants.
Science & Biotechnology
The chemistry is the reason the plant is famous, and it is entirely different from Panax. The markers are the eleutherosides — syringin, known as eleutheroside B, and the lignan glycoside eleutheroside E — together with a group of immunomodulatory polysaccharides. There are no ginsenosides at all, which is why the older common name has been formally discouraged in pharmacopoeias. The WHO monograph gives 2 to 3 g of dried root a day, and small trials have reported improved endurance and reduced fatigue in athletes and in shift workers, though the studies are generally small and the preparations inconsistently standardised. One interaction is well documented and clinically important: eleuthero raised serum digoxin levels significantly in healthy volunteers, and there are milder reports involving dexamethasone and diazepam, suggesting an effect on drug transporters.
Uses & Benefits
The root is the crop, lifted after three or four years, dried and used for decoctions, tinctures and standardised extracts. It is one of the original adaptogens — the term was coined in the Soviet Union in the 1960s around work on this species — and it remains one of the most widely sold tonic herbs in the world. In the garden it is a useful shrub for a shady, awkward corner: it tolerates deep shade, spreads into a thicket that suppresses weeds, and the black berries feed thrushes in autumn. The spines make it a genuine barrier plant, and it can be used as an informal stock-proof hedge in a large garden. It is fully hardy and unfussy about soil as long as it does not dry out completely.
Growing from Seed
The seed has a deep morphophysiological dormancy and will not germinate from a dry packet in a single season. Sow fresh seed in autumn in a moist, humus-rich mix, keep the pot cool and frost-free through winter, and expect the first seedlings the following spring; a warm period followed by a cold one is what breaks the block. Alternatively, and much more reliably, take root cuttings or lift suckers in early spring. Grow the young plants in light shade, in soil with plenty of leaf mould, and keep them moist through their first two summers. Plant out in autumn, spaced a metre apart if a thicket is wanted, and cut the oldest stems to the ground every few years to keep the colony young and productive.
Our Take
A hardy, useful, aggressively spiny shrub with a real pharmacological record and one interaction that matters. Grow it for shade, not for miracles.
Related Reading
Continue exploring with these related plants: