Some people say that people in China have been eating ginseng for 4000 years. However, there is no record of ginseng in pre-Qin documents and western Han history books. The earliest records of ginseng can be found in a large number of absurd superstitious works in the Han Dynasty, such as "Shu Wei" with theology and Confucian teachings. For example, "If you shake the light, you will become an adult ginseng, and if you waste the mountain to blaspheme, you will shake the light, and ginseng will not be born" (Chunqiu Wei), and "If you ride a tree, you will have ginseng, and if you have ginseng, you will have purple gas" (Li Weiyi). This is obviously the first time that China's first pharmacological work, Shennong Materia Medica Classic, took ginseng as medicine income. This book was written in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 100) under the pretext of "Shennong", but it was lost in the Tang Dynasty. The existing version is a so-called compilation collected by later generations from reprints of other works. In Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, ginseng is listed as one of the top-grade "monarch" drugs, which is "nourishing life to cope with nature, non-toxic, long-term administration will not hurt people, and it wants to lighten the body, replenish qi and prolong life", and its pharmacology is "nourishing five internal organs, calming the mind, calming the soul, stopping convulsions, eliminating evil spirits, improving eyesight, being happy and improving intelligence." It's similar to the advertisement of "health products" now, but it's not prominent, because there are 120 top-grade drugs that can prolong life after long-term use. Shennong Herbal Classic does not specify the method of taking ginseng. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing recorded 1 13 prescriptions in Treatise on Febrile Diseases, of which 2 1 used ginseng. This is the first record of the medicinal use of ginseng.

In the next 1000 years, ginseng was also used as medicine, but its status was basically equivalent to a local product, used for gifts and tributes, and also similar to the current "health care products". For example, Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng, famous poets in the late Tang Dynasty, also known as "Pilu", all wrote poems with the theme of thanking friends for donating ginseng. At the end of Pi Rixiu's poem, he said, "From now on, if you keep frying, you don't have to bake tea in Jinshan." It seems that ginseng is just a substitute for good tea. The atmosphere of the Song Dynasty remains the same. Su Shi wrote to a friend asking for local products, saying, "Just send more dried dates and ginseng! If not, there is no need to send someone. How can you work hard in Wan Li? " The status of ginseng, like dried dates, belongs to the food to relieve cravings. It was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that ginseng suddenly gained the supreme position of "king of herbs" and "head of all medicines". Li Shizhen included the Biography of Ginseng written by his father Li Yanwen in Compendium of Materia Medica, and discussed ginseng in detail for the first time. According to him, ginseng is almost a panacea for all diseases, "it can cure all deficiency diseases of men and women." The value of ginseng is one hundred times that of this one, and it was soon dug up and extinct in the Central Plains. It can only be found in the deep forests in the northeast, so that people now think that ginseng is a specialty of Changbai Mountain in the northeast. I don't know that in ancient times, Shangdang ginseng in Shanxi was regarded as a good product. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the growing place of medicinal materials has a great influence on the medicinal properties. According to "mutual growth and mutual resistance", the medicinal materials in cold regions are warm, while those in tropical regions are cool or cold, while the medicinal properties of ginseng are considered as "slightly cold" in ancient times and "warm in nature" in modern times, which also reflects the migration trend of ginseng origin from south to north.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Han people's enthusiasm for ginseng even helped the rise of the Nuzhen nationality in Northeast China to some extent, and the collection of ginseng became a major source of income for the Nuzhen nationality. Jurchen herself did not consume ginseng, but sold it to the Han people in the Central Plains through the horse market, so that the Ming court suspended the horse market in Liaodong in the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, resulting in a backlog of Jurchen ginseng, which rotted more than 100,000 kilograms in two years, forcing them to improve their production methods for long-term preservation. In the Qing Dynasty, people in China were enthusiastic about ginseng. Tens of thousands of people went to Changbai Mountain to collect ginseng every year, and ginseng in Northeast China was also facing the fate of extinction. In order to stop this kind of indiscriminate mining and protect the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty, in the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (1699), the Qing court ordered the release of tickets to collect ginseng, and private mining was strictly prohibited. But this can't effectively prevent the risk of death and private mining. The output of ginseng decreased year by year. In the twenty-five years of Qianlong (1760), tickets were printed 10000, and 6000 tickets were actually issued. Nearly a hundred years later, in the second year of Xianfeng (1852), the number of tickets printed decreased to 753, and 632 tickets were actually issued. Wild ginseng was rare in the late Qing Dynasty. Up to now, wild ginseng has been designated as a first-class protected plant by the state and is on the verge of extinction. The "wild ginseng" with amazing price in China market is either fake or imported from Russian. It is estimated that wild ginseng will be extinct in Russia in a few years according to the current mining speed.

Just when ginseng was on the verge of extinction and China people were looking for its substitutes, American ginseng began to play a role. 170 1 year, a French Jesuit priest, P. Jartoux (1668- 1720), came to China to preach, and was also infected by the ginseng fever in China, thinking that ginseng was indeed a panacea. 1708, Du Demei was ordered by the Qing court to draw a map of China and went to the northeast for investigation. He saw fresh ginseng collected by local people in a village near the Korean border and drew it according to the original size. 1711April 2002 12, he wrote to the president of the Missionary Association, attached a map of ginseng he drew, introduced the origin, morphology, growth and collection methods of ginseng in detail, and speculated that it was possible to find ginseng in other geographically similar places: the origin of ginseng can be roughly said to be from 39 degrees north latitude to 47 degrees east longitude. ..... All this reminds me that if there is one country in the world that grows this plant, it is probably Canada. Because according to people who have lived there, the forests and mountains there are quite similar to those here. "

ginseng

This is the first time that ginseng has been introduced to the western world in detail. After this letter was published, it had a great influence. Lafitau, another French Jesuit priest, preached in Quebec. After reading Du Demei's letter on 17 16, he realized that his Quebec was the place where Du Demei predicted that ginseng might be found. Lafitau showed a map of ginseng to the local Indians, and they immediately recognized it as a kind of herb they called "garantoquen". Most North American Indian tribes used it as a medicine for a long time, but its usage was different. It was used to treat headache, trauma, infertility and so on, and it was not regarded as a panacea like China people. In fact, American ginseng and China ginseng belong to the same family and genus, but they are not the same species. The scientific name was later named American ginseng by Swedish botanist Linnaeus, and it was called American ginseng after being introduced to China, also known as American ginseng and Guangdong ginseng.

After Lafitau reported the "discovery" of American ginseng to France, shrewd French businessmen soon realized that they had a treasure that could make huge profits from the Chinese. When French businessmen from all over North America made deals with Indians, they began to buy American ginseng in large quantities in addition to fur-a tradition that has been preserved to this day, and now many fur merchants in the United States also act as American ginseng sellers. 17 18, a French fur company tried to export American ginseng to China, which was greatly welcomed by China people and started the international trade of American ginseng. There is a "ginseng-digging fever" in North America, and Washington even mentioned in his diary that he had met people who dug ginseng. A document in Philadelphia records that 1788, a famous explorer named DanielBoone sold 15 tons of American ginseng there.

American ginseng and leather products became the earliest export commodities in the New World. At first, the trade of American ginseng was indirect. American ginseng was first shipped from North America to France or Britain, and then to China, so that the TCM works at that time mistakenly thought that American ginseng was "going abroad to France (that is, France), a Flemish ginseng" (Compendium of Materia Medica). The first direct trade between China and the United States was also American ginseng trade, which took place in February 1784. "empress of china" set out from new york, loaded 242 boxes of about 30 tons of American ginseng, arrived in Guangzhou on August 30th, and returned with 200 tons of tea, silk and porcelain. /kloc-In the late 8th century, about 70 tons of American ginseng were transported from New England to China every year. Mainly due to the trade of American ginseng, in 1800, the trade volume between the United States and Guangzhou Port exceeded that with China in 1925. According to statistics, between 1820 and 1903, the United States exported17 million pounds of American ginseng to China, with an average price of about $2.50 per pound.

These are almost all wild ginseng. At that time, American ginseng could be found everywhere in the forests of the northern States of the United States, but no amount of American ginseng could help this uncontrolled indiscriminate mining. In the1870s, some Americans began to experiment with the artificial cultivation of American ginseng. The father of American ginseng cultivation is generally considered to be George Stanton. 1885, he successfully planted 150 mu of American ginseng in New York State. By the end of19th century, the supply of wild American ginseng had actually ended, and artificial cultivation had been widely used. From 1906 to 1970, the United States exported an average of 215,000 pounds of American ginseng every year, of which only 195 1 year's export volume decreased obviously, which may be affected by the Korean War. But even that year, the export volume still reached 77 thousand pounds.

The United States Department of Agriculture began to count the export of American ginseng in the middle of 1960. From 1967 to 1982, the annual export volume increased by about 9% on average. By 1983, the export volume began to rise sharply, and American ginseng once again became the main export product of the United States. The annual average export volume increased by more than 25%, reaching its peak in 1994, with an annual export volume of 2.37 million pounds, with the highest amount of 1992 reaching1040,000 US dollars. However, since 1994, on the one hand, due to the successful introduction of American ginseng from China, it can meet about 20% of the market demand in China, and the demand for American ginseng is not entirely dependent on imports. On the other hand, the Asian financial crisis has also greatly affected the export of American American ginseng, with an average annual decrease of about 10%. According to the data released by the US Department of Agriculture not long ago, in 200 1 year, the export value of American Panax quinquefolium was US$ 2,565,438 +0.4 million (including cultivated ginseng 1.4 1.000), of which more than 90% was exported to East Asia, especially Hong Kong.

The price difference between wild American ginseng and cultivated American ginseng can reach dozens of times. At present, the price of wild ginseng (wild ginseng) in the market is about 500-600 dollars per pound, the price of transplanted ginseng (forest cultivated ginseng) is 200-300 dollars per pound, and the price of garden ginseng (field cultivated ginseng) is only 20-30 dollars per pound. In order to prevent wild American ginseng from being endangered like wild ginseng, the American government has carried out strict management on the collection of wild American ginseng, and the Fisheries and Wildlife Administration announces which States can collect wild American ginseng every year.

The United States is the largest producer of American ginseng, with 25 states producing American ginseng. Kentucky is the highest producing area of wild ginseng, Wisconsin is the highest producing area of cultivated ginseng, and most American ginseng is produced in Wisconsin. These American ginseng are basically exported, and those left at home are mainly sold to China people. In recent years, due to the sluggish export, American ginseng merchants also tried to explore the local market in the United States and began to publicize the magical functions of American ginseng, mainly claiming that it can enhance people's energy and is an "energy stimulant". American ginseng preparations can also be found in pharmacies and supermarkets, but the sales volume is very small. Since the US Food and Drug Administration has not recognized that American ginseng (and ginseng) has any medical function, these American ginseng preparations are sold as health food.

Whether American ginseng and ginseng have medical value and what kind of medical function are still controversial in western medical circles. Many researchers simply regard the traditional Chinese medicine claims about the efficacy of ginseng as myths or superstitions, while others try to study whether these claims have scientific basis. If ginseng really has pharmacological effects, it is because it contains some active substances. Ginseng roots are mainly composed of carbohydrates (about 70% of dry roots, which constitute the sweetness of ginseng), similar to carrot roots. Ginseng alkynol extracted from ginseng is exactly the same as carrot toxin (a neurotoxin) extracted from carrot. It is not unreasonable for people to say that ginseng is taken improperly, just like eating radish. Ginseng root also contains many other bioactive compounds, which show medicinal properties after extraction and concentration, but their content is extremely low and it is unlikely to play an important role. A small part (less than 5%) of the chemical components of ginseng roots belong to saponins, which constitutes the bitter taste of ginseng. These chemicals can also be found in many herbs and foods (such as olives, melons and soybeans) and have pharmacological activities. Researchers all over the world have spent decades trying to isolate and identify various ginsenoside, and 34 ginsenoside have been identified from China. When used alone, some ginsenosides seem to have similar effects as taking the whole ginseng root, so it is generally considered that the unique active substance of ginseng is saponin.

Ginsenosides are mainly concentrated in the outer layer of ginseng root, and the content in the root whisker is much higher than that in the main root, which is several times, which is contrary to the traditional view that the inner part of ginseng root is stronger than the outer layer and the main root is stronger than the root whisker. Moreover, the content of ginsenoside in leaves, buds and pulp of ginseng is much higher than that in roots. If ginsenoside is really the active substance of ginseng, it can be said that using ginseng root as medicine is really a waste of time. Traditionally, the older the ginseng is, the better, but according to the determination results, the ginsenoside content in the roots of 4-5 years old ginseng is the highest. Traditionally, China ginseng is better than American ginseng, and both of them are better than Panax notoginseng, but the content of ginsenoside is reversed, with Panax notoginseng being the highest, Panax quinquefolium being the second and Panax ginseng the lowest. It's all messed up. However, we must remember that the traditional statement may have no reliable basis and may even be based on mistakes. For example, Chinese medicine believes that ginseng is warm and American ginseng is cool, which is due to misunderstanding of its origin. Panax quinquefolium was first introduced from Guangzhou, so it was mistaken by Chinese medicine practitioners at that time as a specialty of the western south and was designated as a cold medicine. In fact, American ginseng is mainly produced in Canada and the northern United States, and its latitude is equivalent to that of ginseng.

Interestingly, there are great differences in the determination of ginsenoside content at home and abroad. Chinese researchers determined that the content of ginsenoside in ginseng taproot was 2.2-5%, while European and American researchers determined that the content was only about half. I wonder whether this difference reflects the confidence difference of Chinese and foreign researchers in the medicinal properties of ginseng to some extent. Just as it used to be thought that ginseng can cure all diseases, some researchers now claim to find that ginseng and American ginseng have various pharmacological effects, which have effects on the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune system and endocrine system, and can improve physical and mental work ability, reduce fatigue, and prevent and treat top diseases in the modern world such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, cancer and diabetes. Some animal experiments and clinical trials support these claims, while others fail to confirm them. It is particularly worth mentioning that ginseng and American ginseng are definitely not completely harmless supplements. A few years ago, American medical institutions warned that ginseng and American ginseng should not be taken to "replenish qi" during the operation, otherwise it might cause massive bleeding during the operation.

Modern medical circles have debated whether ginseng and American ginseng are effective for more than a century. The USP was listed as a reference, but it was deleted in 1880. 1937 the national pharmacopoeia of the United States also deleted references, believing that its medical care value is only the imagination of China people. At present, the American Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association, the medical authorities of the origin of American ginseng, do not recognize the medicinal value of ginseng. Whether ginseng has medical value is likely to continue to be debated in the world medical field in the future. It is considered as a panacea for all diseases, and the biggest possibility is that it can't cure all diseases. China people's worship of ginseng is undoubtedly caused by historical and cultural factors to a great extent. This mystery is the selling point of the survival and prosperity of this ginseng industry. If ginseng can be proved to have a certain curative effect, and if the active substances of ginseng can be truly identified and synthesized, then the ginseng industry may have to complete its historical mission.

This view has nothing to do with the above. Although things are scarce, we must recognize whether we have been fooled by speculators. Apart from food, clothing, housing and transportation, those unnecessary things are actually worthless to us ordinary people. Just like pyramid selling, it's just a big scam. Just like orchids, hundreds of thousands of pieces of jade have moved, so what's the point below? Personally, I think this can only be regarded as a plaything. Of course, you just like it. This is your own business. I hope the public will choose carefully, that's all. I just want to tell the truth.