Does Thousand-Year Ginseng Really Exist? The Latest Truth Explained
Ginseng is a perennial herbaceous plant that prefers cool, moist climates and mostly grows on gentle mountain slopes or sloped ground with small day-night temperature differences in coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests or miscellaneous wood forests. Because its root is thick and fleshy, spindle-shaped, often forked, and its overall appearance closely resembles a person's head, hands, feet and four limbs, it got its name. Many people often hear of thousand-year ginseng, so let's take a look together at whether thousand-year ginseng really exists!
Does Thousand-Year Ginseng Exist?
Thousand-year ginseng is ginseng that has grown for a thousand years; it is extremely rare and has very high medicinal value. It is said that a wild mountain ginseng weighing 75.8 grams appeared on November 20, 2004 at the ginseng festival at Tonghanchun Tang in the Old City God Temple. After appraisal, this ginseng had crossed a thousand years of history in the soil of the Changbai Mountains in Jilin, and when the ginseng farmers discovered it, its unearthed weight reached more than 300 grams, making it the heaviest ginseng so far. At a “sky-high price” of 2.22 million yuan, it set a new record for ginseng prices.
How Long Is the Lifespan of Ginseng?
Ginseng is one of the oldest relict plants on Earth. It flourished widely during the Tertiary period, when angiosperms on Earth were extremely abundant. In natural environments its lifespan is usually around several decades, but wild mountain ginseng has a very strong regenerative capacity and, under suitable conditions, can grow for hundreds or even thousands of years, so the title “king of a hundred herbs” is fully deserved. But thousand-year ginseng is like an endangered animal, extremely scarce and rare, and once it appears it is basically priced sky-high.
The Growing Environment of Ginseng
Ginseng is distributed in eastern Liaoning, the eastern half of Jilin and eastern Heilongjiang, and generally grows in places where the climatic conditions are an annual accumulated temperature of 2000-3000°C, a frost-free period of 125-150 days, snow cover of 20-44 cm, and annual precipitation of 500-1000 mm. It prefers cool, moist climates and oblique and diffuse light, and avoids strong light and high temperatures. The soil requirements are well-drained, loose, fertile brown forest soil or mountain podzolic brown forest soil with a deep humus layer, with a soil pH of 5.5-6.2 being suitable.
What Types of Ginseng Are There?
1. Sun-dried ginseng: Sun-dried ginseng has a yellowish earth-colored surface, with dark brown horizontal lines and longitudinal wrinkles. It is brittle, light in body, has a flat cross-section, is white, and has radial fissures. It has a fragrant odor and a bitter taste.
2. White dry ginseng: The outer skin of the main root of white dry ginseng has been removed, and the body surface is pale yellow or off-white. The horizontal lines at the upper end are not obvious, but shallow longitudinal wrinkles and branch root scars can be seen. Its other properties are similar to sun-dried ginseng.
3. Red ginseng: Red ginseng has a brownish-red surface and is semi-transparent. The rhizome is yellowish earth-colored, hard and brittle, with a flat cross-section, horny, brownish-red, with a light-colored central circle in the middle. It has a fragrant odor and a slightly bitter taste.
4. Wild mountain ginseng: The main root of wild mountain ginseng is short and thick, equal in length to the rhizome or shorter, and usually has two main branch roots, resembling the human body. The fibrous roots are sparse and long, not easy to break, and have obvious wart-like protrusions on them.
5. Garden ginseng: The rhizome of garden ginseng has reed bowls on one or both sides, with no round reed. The upper end of the main root has thick horizontal lines, not spiral-shaped, and sometimes horizontal lines can be seen throughout. The fibrous roots are broom-like, relatively short and brittle.