Ginseng
American ginseng (panax quinquefolium) was first discovered by western civilization in the early 1700's growing on the shaded, fertile woodlands floors.
Since that time, wild American ginseng was harvested and sold until natural supplies became quite scarce. At this point it became necessary to begin cultivating this same species to fill market needs.
Today the finest American ginseng available is cultivated on fertile North Central Wisconsin soils. It is cultivated in this fertile soil only once to produce the highest quality, nutrient rich ginseng.
Marathon County, Wisconsin, is recognized worldwide as the capital of cultivate American ginseng. Our ginseng is grown in shaded fields, designed to resemble its natural wild environment. The ginseng is nurtured from seeds to mature plants, harvested and dried with care to ensure the best possible ginseng available.
About Ginseng...Wonder Herb of the Orient
"Root of Life", "Man's Health" and "King of Herbs" are some of the names ginseng has acquired throughout the centuries.
Ginseng has been used in Chinese medicine for over four thousand years as a miracle cure-all, elixir of life, and a panacea for almost everything. It is still the mostly widely used medicinal plant in the Orient. Ginseng has been used to treat conditions such as mental fatigue, insomnia, arthritis, tuberculosis, indigestion, high blood pressure, stress related disorders, cancer and many more. reference:Mind food and Smart Pill Ross Pelton. Doubleday Publishing.
Ginseng is a true "adaptogen". An adaptogen is a nontoxic substance that increases an organisms resistance to adverse stress factors of a physical, chemical and biological origin. Dr. Kurt Donsbach, one of America's leading nutritionist and health care educators, and health care educators, states; Unlike synthetic drugs designed to act against specific disease conditions, ginseng works in a nonspecific manner and thus is a valuable agent in a broad spectrum of chemical disorders. It sets up a universal defense system capable of increasing the body's resistance to physical factors such as overheating and radiation, to chemical factors such as poisons and cancer-inducing substances, and to biological factors such as bacteria and viruses.
Ginseng contains therapeutic chemicals known as ginsenosides. The percentage of ginsenosides in a ginseng is the Far Eastern measurement of value and potency. Based on this measurement, American ginseng has a relative value of about 1.5 to 2.5 times more ginsenosides than Korean or Chinese White ginseng.
According to recent studies as reported in the Wisconsin Ginseng Reporter, Oct, 1993 issue, Dr. Ara Der Marderosian PhD., Professor of Medical Chemistry, at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science have shown American ginseng to be higher in ginsenosides than Korean or China White. Ginsenoside Rbl, which his research shows is very high in American ginseng, us said to have a cooling effe3ct on the body and its functions.
Ginseng contains vitamins A, E, B-1 (thiamine), B-2 (riboflavin), B-3 (niacin) and B-12, folic acid, biotin and ascorbic acid. It also contains the minerals, iron, calcium, phosphorous, copper, magnesium, potassium sulfur, manganese, germanium, cobalt and sodium. Reference:Mind Food and Smart Pills Ross Pelton, Doubleday Publishing
In summary, the activities of the brain and the body require the expenditure of energy. It is the regulation of energy that underlies the biological action of the active ingredients of ginseng. reference: Mind Food and Smart Pills Ross Pelton, Doubleday Publishing
American researchers are examining ginseng and finding it has chemicals that indeed have strong biological activity.
Dr. Tony Lee, professor of pharmcology at Southern Illinois School of Medicien, says that ginednosides, compounds in panax ginseng, are antioxidants. That means, among other things, they help protect cells from overall damage that can bring on disease and aging.
He has found that the ginseng chemicals specifically trigger release of chemicals that help relax muscle cells. That means he says, ginseng might help dilate blood vessels, perhaps lowering blood pressure and improving blood circulation.
(Your Food Pharmacy by Jean Cooper from January 4, 1995)