Amazing Ginseng

HISTORY

A lot of people are surprised to learn that ginseng has had a very broad establish of use outside of China.  Despite the fact that the Pan-ax type does not grow in India, quite a few other ginseng species used to be key substances in ancient Ayurvedic herbal cures.

The entire beliefs of traditional Chinese medicine was extremely influential in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, where herbal medicines and the principles of bodily power methods were extensively accepted.  Every one of these cultures relied on Pan-ax ginseng and associated this varieties recognized as eleutherococcus senticosus it grows in Korea, north of China and east of Russia.

Siberian ginseng is not ginseng at all, but relatively it is a remote member of the ginseng group in the same way that it was used in China:  as a broad healing and stimulant for the beneficial, and as supportive heal-all for those taking other herbs when sick.

Over the centuries ginseng's popularity also multiply to the West.  It was introduced into Europe in the early 1700s by French Jesuit priest, Father Jarteux, who had spent time as a missionary in China, where he had personally witnessed its benefits.

Due to the cost of importing it, it was Siberian ginseng is the most adaptogenic and toning for the complete body, and is mostly helpful against typical stress and as an anti aging agent. Only European royal family who could afford to use it, and there are reports that it also turned popular with several popes, who got it for its longevity benefits.

Father Jarteux's testify about ginseng reached Canada in the early 1700s, inspiring a different Jesuit priest to investigate for and find the American ginseng plant, Pan-ax quinquefolius, which grew wild all over  the Canadian woods.

Ironically, this species of ginseng had previously been discovered by many Native American tribes existing all the way through America and Canada, and they were using it to relive aches and pains, and as an energy tonic and general tonic.

While the  American reverence for ginseng was not as solid as the Chinese, it was still a principal ingredient in many herbal medicines among the Chippewa, Algonquin, and Cherokee tribes across Canada and the United States.

The large quantity of wild American ginseng appeared like a gold mine for colonial settlers.  By 1720 Canada was exporting shiploads of ginseng to Canton to fill the unquenchable Chinese demand.

Unfortunately, by 1760 the Canadians had greedily over harvested their raw supply of wild ginseng, opening the entry for capitalist Americans throughout northern New England and the Allegheny Mountains to take over the vast export trade. 

By 1800, as immigrants to America spread west,  ginseng became one of the top export crops across the whole Atlantic coastline, as far south as Georgia and as far west as Wisconsin.  It is believed that in some areas entire villages would go out into the forest and dig for what they called "seng".  Allegedly, even Daniel Boone traded in ginseng.

American ginseng was more than an export crop, however.  It also became a fashionable herbal medicine in its own right in the American Wild West, mostly for the reason that settlers learned to use it medicinally from the native Indians tribes.

In the eastern colonies too, many European-skilled physicians started prescribing ginseng and other herbs to aid their own simple pharmaceuticals.  In fact, ginseng was included on the official American list of pharmaceuticals from 1842 until 1882.

Sadly, ginseng's growing popularity in North America began to diminish during the mid-to-late-1800s for two motives.  First, many impostor started wandering the western border advertising ginseng and other herbal tonics, falsely touting them as miracle medicines and strong sexual aphrodisiacs.

Logically, after adequate people had paid their hard-earned money and failed to get the promised result the community reacted resentfully to this medical quackery and slowly discarded the entire belief of ginseng as a healthful natural product.

The American custom of using ginseng and other herbal medicines had simply been too brief, compare to the thousands of years of proven usage in China, to conserve ginseng's tarnished reputation.

The second motive ginseng lost its acceptance in American was perhaps more unfortunate:  it came face-to-face with the growing legions of allopathic doctors who were taking over American medicine and knocking away any competing medical philosophy. 

Allopathic doctors disparaged all medical theories that differed from their own, including natural medicine, chiropractic, homeopathy, and osteopathy.  Between 1847 ( when the American Medical Association was formed) and the 1920s, nearly every unconventional philosophy of medicine was successfully banned form being taught in medical universities because it did not conform to the allopathic view of good health and disease.

Conservatively trained doctors were required to see ailment as the product of external forces, such as a virus or bacterial infection, rather than as a result of an internal deficiency or discord within the body, which many alternative medical philosophies espoused in one form or another.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the premise that ginseng of any other natural supplement might help the body resist sickness by restoring life from inside was just not possible in the allopathic belief.

The concept of preventive medicine, of attaining general good health through nutrition, exercise, and dietary balance, took a back seat in medicine until just a few decades back. 

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