Maureen Flanagan, age 14, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for her question:
What is ginseng? .
Every kind of plant creates an assortment of its own special chemicals. We know that marijuana and locoweed stupify the brains of people and animals and that some plants contain deadly poisons. The leafy comfrey plant contains a healing drug and many other plants contain useful medicines. Some people think that the ginseng plant contains whatever is needed to cure all human ills. But so far, scientists have been unable to prove these miraculous claims.
Ginseng weeds grow wild in most parts of the world where woods are damp and shady. It belongs in the plant family Araliacae, along with about 500 other plant species. In the Orient, the ginseng has the most fantastic reputation of any plant in the world. Its weird looking roots are supposed to cure whatever ails you and even prevent your body from aging.
These notions, of course, are rather fanciful and the Chinese have even more fanciful notions about which ginseng root is the most beneficial, Wealthy people pay fortunes for the roots that are shaped like weird little human figures. They named it ginseng, which means "shaped like a man." Naturally, it is not very sensible to suppose that the shape of a plant makes all that difference to its secret chemicals.
The rather fragrant roots have a sweetish flavor, somewhat like licorice. They may be chewed or dried and chomped up to make ginseng tea, It's too bad that scientists can find nothing to prove that ginseng does what some people claim it does. If they ever do, no doubt we shall grow fields of ginseng to keep all of us young and in good health.
Ginseng grows wild in our woods, though most of it has been found, uprooted and hopefully eaten. They are low growing plants with five fingered leaves that spread out in green umbrellas. Cultivating ginseng takes a lot of patience, for it grows very slowly and the roots are not ready until the plants are six years old. During that time, many things can happen to destroy the crops. Mice, gophers and other rodents are very fond of the roots and eat them up, ready or not. Storms and scorching sunshine may delay growth.
The shy ginseng plant grows gentle little greenish yellow flowers. Some of them form buttons of tiny scarlet berries. Seeds from the berries can be used to grow new plants. However, they must be stored and treated in a special way and kept in sand with just the right amount of moisture. Preparing the seeds requires almost as much patience as cultivating the lazy plants.
Ginseng's reputation in the Orient reached America. Some people succeeded in cultivating it from our wild strains and sold the dried roots for as much as $40 a pound. Nowadays, scientists are testing old herbs that our ancestors used as medicine. Some have proved to contain very useful chemicals. But, sad to say, they have found nothing to prove that those costly ginseng roots deserve their fantastic reputation.