thanks - excellent post and what HTWW does best

Harvesting wild ginseng in Appalachia is a fairly common means for people to pick up a little bit of spending money.

I bought several hundred 2 year old live ginseng roots for transplanting perhaps 6 or 7 years ago. We found an ideal spot for them, at the edge of a New England forest. The plants continue to thrive. We have yet to harvest them. Perhaps next year?

If someone offers you a funny looking root and claims it has magical powers, will give you strength and vigor and cure what ails you, JUST SAY NO!

It's WITCHCRAFT AKA, the MANdrake, energy root, BONER root, witches little helper, Satan's child, soothing comforter and MY LITTLE FRIEND.

Look at CHINA, do you want to go commie TOO???

It's kind of a relief to learn Chinese traditional medicine makes use of one product that has not brought a species to the brink of extinction. While there is no medical or scientific proof of the efficacy of tiger medicines, Chinese demand for them, particularly those made from bones, has decimated the ranks of tigers beyond Asia.

I remember well my father scouring the woods back in the day, to supplement his meager farm income with this

root. The smell of gingseng, left to dry on the backporch is a sensory link to my childhood. Contrary, to the stereotype, it was a childhood filled with many interesting and beautiful experiences, even though my family struggled financially in the economically harrowed south where I grew up.

Perhaps the cultivated root is as good as the wild root so dilgently hunted by my father (who made a point of not over-harvesting) but it seems unlikely. Wild strawberries beat the cultivated variety by a long shot, so I have usually found the wild thing beats the tamed.

You poor deluded Ginseng addict, yet another life ruined by the DEVIL'S LITTLE MAN.

Do not let what happened to djunabruce, happen to you.

If someone offers you the ROOT, just give them the BOOT!

Partnership for a Ginseng Free America.

With their demon flower. We're pushing them to consume our ginseng to make them our slaves. Down with America!!!! Booo!

Quick! Call Israel!

Ravers need more XTC!!!!

Quick call Karzai!!!

Baltimore and Chicago need more HEROIN!!!

Quick! Call the CIA!

The MSM needs some more COCAINE!!!!

Quick! Call ADM!

Food needs more HFCS!!!

Quick! Call Lilly!

Oprah viewers need more PROZAC!!!

Quick! Call China!

Walmart needs more SHODDY DISPOSABLE PRODUCTS TO SELL AGAIN AND AGAIN TO STUPID AMERICANS.

And you just want to blame America!!!!

We will fix them. Monsanto will GM the the manroot and put caffeine, the BRT gene and HFCS in it

This is great news.

However Wisconsin should be wary and be ready to protect it's ginseng industry from a possible Chinese takeover someday.

has been long prized by the Chinese because unlike the Chinese/Korean subspecies (Panax ginseng) it doesn't cause heat in the body (according to TCM--Traditional Chinese Medicine), meaning it can be used by any age person, those with excess heat, etc. For this reason it will always be valuable, and it stands to reason that it will grow better in it's native habitat, being a somewhat finicky plant. FWIW it also tastes better than red ginseng, milder at least.

The above commenters' silliness aside, it is possible that the Chinese would try gain some control of American production, it would make sense for them.....

English traders passing through the Chesapeake region were already exporting American ginseng to China by the mid-17th century, nearly 75 years before the examples described here.

At the time, which was the tail end of the Ming dynasty, Chinese merchants were only allowed to (legally) accept three things in trade with the Europeans: gold, silver -- and ginseng. Thus ships would sail from England to the Chesapeake with manufactured goods for the colonists, then load up on ginseng obtained through trade with Native Americans, then sail all the way around South America to Asia. There the English merchants would trade the ginseng for porcelains, silks and spices, then sail around the Cape and back to London. One successful round-the-world trip like this would make a life's fortune for all involved.

Thus the Jesuit tale told here is interesting but hardly the origin of ginseng exports to China.

From C. Northcote Parkinson's "War in the Eastern Seas", p.45

"As a principle article of export to China, the Americans frequently loaded their vessels with 'ginseng.' This was a root growing wild in American forests and greatly prized by the Chinese for its imaginary medicinal qualities. A trade based on the exchange of worthless rubbish for tea could hardly fail to be profitable."

wellwater,

How is my comment silly if you agree with it?.

I found this to b an interesting article. I did not know that our Native Americans grew it on our continent and it was the exported to Asia.

Years ago, I had International students. The parents of one boy from Korea brought me a nice looking quart size container with some roots and what looked like radishes in a liquid. The boy whispered to me to make very big thanks and bow as it was a very precious gift. And so I did that. Later, a Japanese student told me it cost at least 1,000 US dollars. (It tasted terrible, like alcolhol)

Anyway, later another very rich Korean father saw that bottle at our home. One year later he returned with a huge gorgeous bottle, ten times bigger, with a huge gingseng root, which he said was twenty years old. He owned a newspaper and had advertised for this special gift to bring to me. Needless to say, I might have preferred cash. But I still have the roots from both jars and keep them moist. Never did find out what liquid is used, so we use vodka. It is quite a conversation piece.