Ginseng (人参 Renshen)

Ginseng, reputedly the “king of ha hundred herbs”, has been regarded as the ideal tonic since ancient times. A ginseng looks very much like the human body as it is complete with a head and limbs.

Ginseng today is either collected from the wilderness or cultivated.

The ChangbaiMountains in northeast China produces the best wild ginseng in this country. It grows rather slowly, and it generally takes several decades or more than a century for it to grow up. The Changbai mountains in Fusong Country, Jilin Province, made the headline in 1981 when a rare mountain ginseng, 287.5gram in weight and 54cm in length, was dug up from a local forest-believed to have been there for more than a century, it is regarded as a most precious treasure.

Wild ginseng is difficult to come by today, and it is too expensive to meet the market demand. That is why the Chinese were already dultivating ginseng some 300 years ago.

The medicinal value of ginseng was not lost on our ancestors. Sheng Nong's Herbal Classic, the earliest medicinal book in China, has this to say: Ginseng is efficacious for strengthening the heart, stabilizing the nerve system and the mind, stopping shock, improve the level of intelligence, and extend the life span. In his Copendium of Materia Medica, the celebrated Ming-dynasty herbalist Li Shizhen pointed out that ginseng is highly effective in replenishing the human body's vitality, making the old look young, and saving life from the brink of death. All in all, ginseng is an ideal tonic.