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Ginseng has probably been in use for about 5,000 years. While it may have been used by the Indians in North America that long, the Chinese have best documented its early use. The earliest mention of it comes from a book of the Chien Han Era (33-48 B.C.). Later about 500 A.D. a book called the "Sheng Nung Pen Ts'ao Ching" (the book of herbs by Sheng Nung) makes mention of it. Long before Vasco de Gama opened up a sea route to Cathay (China) in 1497, the "Three Kingdoms" (the Koreas and part of Manchuria) did a thriving trade selling ginseng to China. Soon thereafter though, word began to filter to Europe about the northern woodland plant that had miraculous healing and restorative powers. The first reference to it in Europe was in 1643 "Relations della Grande Monarchia Cina" published in Rome. In 1653, Hendrick Hamel of Holland and his fellow seamen were sailing from Formosa to Japan. During a lengthy storm they got off course and ran aground on Cheju Island, Korea. They were taken into custody by the Korean government and held on what was meant to be a permanent basis. (Korea wanted to remain closed to foreigners and did not want ANY information about their country reaching foreign shores). Although in captivity, they were treated well. After 13 years, Hamel and some of the others escaped to Japan and freedom. In Hamel's diary, he noted that Korea paid tribute to China. Three times a year an envoy would arrive from China to collect it. The tribute was paid entirely in ginseng. In 1709, a Jesuit named Father Jartous returned to Europe from an assignment in China. In the Memoir of the Royal Academy in Paris, he wrote about the amazing medical ginseng root he had learned about. Later it was translated into English in the Philosiphical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. In 1711, Father Joseph Francois Lafitau another Jesuit was sent from France to a mission near present day Montreal, Canada. Jartous' writings eventually reached him in 1716. Realizing that the local latitude was about the same as the area in China where ginseng grew, he wondered if some might grow in his vicinity. When he showed a drawing of the ginseng plant to the Indians, they immediately took him to a similar plant nearby. They called it "Garantequen". They used it as medicine but in somewhat different ways from the Chinese. Most of the Indians in Eastern North America apparently used it. The uses varied from a tonic for mental enhancement, to a poultice for healing wounds, to a headache cure, to soothing eyes and muscular cramps, to curing croup in children - among others. Maine's Penobscot Indian women used it for fertility. Some accounts suggest that perhaps ginseng use by the Indians increased when they heard about the wonderful effects the Chinese attributed to it. A plant sample sent to Europe from which Lafitau received such good results that soon a French fur trading company delivered a trial shipment of the dried American root to China. The Chinese were quite enthusiastic about the product; and a thriving international ginseng trade began. In the United States, John Jacob Astor, noted in history as making his fortune in the fur trade, got a huge start early on in his career when he sold a boatload of ginseng to China. Daniel Boone is also reputed to have dug and sold over 15 TONS of ginseng and to have lost some more when his boat overturned. Davy Crockett may have dug some ginseng to put money in his pocket. In George Washington's diary, he notes passing ginseng diggers in his travels. Perhaps the first American ship to deliver a cargo of ginseng to China was the 360 ton China Empress. With apparently a crew of men from Maine it arrived in Canton on August 30, 1784. It was that ship that set the stage for those to follow. In the year 1800, thanks to the ginseng business, the United States did more trade with the port of Canton ALONE than it did with the entire country of China in 1925. Ton upon ton of wild ginseng was dug and exported. Today there is relatively little wild ginseng left. It has become somewhat threatened and is now controlled to a large degree by the International CITES Treaty. Only a few states still permit harvesting of wild ginseng. Then it is during a mandated season, often requiring a license and immediate planting of any ginseng berries attached to the plant. Here in Maine, ginseng was dug out pretty much by the 1930's. In a very few places, it still grows wild but is protected by state law. To counter the dwindeling supply of wild ginseng, Americans began cultivating ginseng. George Stanton is usually credited as being the first successful American ginseng cultivator in the 1880's. Many of the early growers in the U.S. were doctors and dentists who used it in their medicinal formulations. Today, there are three basic growing methods used and some variants of the three. Most American ginseng is considered cultivated and grown under artificial shade. An often higher quality alternative called woodsgrown is produced generally in raised woodland beds generally following cultivated growing methods. The third method of growing ginseng is called "wild-simulated". This method adheres quite closely to the growth of wild ginseng; and it has the potential of producing the ultimate quality ginseng. | ||
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