Panax ginseng Seeds | Korea Chinese Red Root Slices
LATIN NAME: Panax ginseng
COMMON NAME: Korean Ginseng, Asian Ginseng
Plant Profile
Panax ginseng is a woodland herb of the mixed broadleaf forests that run through north-east China, the Korean peninsula and the Russian Far East. It dies back each autumn to a fleshy root that forks into a rhizome and two or more lobes, and it can live for decades, though commercial roots are lifted at five or six years.
Red ginseng is the same root treated differently. Fresh roots are steamed for two to three hours and dried until the interior turns amber and horny. The colour is not added; it comes from browning reactions between sugars and amino acids during the steam, the same chemistry that colours bread crust.
Science & Biotechnology
Steaming does more than preserve the root. Heat gelatinises the starch and drives deglycosylation of the malonyl ginsenosides, so Rb1, Rc and Rd fall while Rg3, Rg5 and Rh2 rise. Rg3 is the usual marker quoted on red ginseng labels, and its concentration depends more on steaming time and temperature than on the age of the root.
Oral bioavailability of the parent ginsenosides is poor, in the region of two to twenty per cent. What reaches the blood is largely compound K, produced when gut bacteria such as Bacteroides and Eubacterium cleave the sugar chain. That step varies enormously between people, which is one reason trials give uneven results. Meta-analyses of fatigue and convalescence show small effects at best.
Uses & Benefits
The root is taken as slices for tea, as a powder, or in the small red boxes sold as gifts across Korea and China. Traditional use is for fatigue, poor appetite and recovery after illness, at one to three grams a day.
Several interactions are worth knowing. Ginseng reduces the effect of warfarin in some patients by altering INR, and it can add to the action of antidiabetic drugs. High doses cause insomnia, headache and raised blood pressure, a pattern once labelled ginseng abuse syndrome. It is avoided in pregnancy and before surgery. Slices should be hard, deeply translucent and free of a sour smell, which signals that the root was not dried quickly enough.
Growing from Seed
Seed is harvested in August with an immature embryo and will not germinate until it has been through ninety days of warm moist conditions followed by ninety to a hundred and twenty days near freezing. Skipping the warm phase gives a poor, late emergence, and dried seed is usually dead.
Plants need 75 to 85 per cent shade, raised beds and a loose loam at pH 5.5 to 6.5. The critical rule is that ginseng cannot follow ginseng: old ground carries Alternaria, Phytophthora and a general soil sickness that persists for a decade or more. Four to six years pass before the root is worth lifting.
Our Take
A demanding woodland crop that rewards shade, fresh ground and patience, and one where the processing, not the age on the box, decides what the root is worth.
Related Reading
If Korean Ginseng appeals to you, these related plants are worth a look: