Ginseng extract 20%: Panax ginseng root concentrated
Panax ginseng is a perennial in the ivy family, carrying a fleshy, branching root and a single stem topped by a whorl of green leaflets. The species belongs to Korea and the northeast of China. In the wild it has all but disappeared there, so what reaches the market is cultivated. Growing it takes patience: a root needs roughly four to six years before it can be harvested, which goes a long way towards explaining why ginseng has always been an expensive herb. Chinese practice has used the root for more than two thousand years and calls it the king of herbs.
The compounds that give the root its character are the ginsenosides, a group of saponins found only in the genus Panax. Rb1 and Rg1 are the best known of them. This extract is standardised to 20% ginsenosides, meaning every batch is measured against that figure, usually by HPLC. Powders of that kind are considerably more concentrated than the dried root itself; think of a raw material somewhere around a tenfold reduction. When comparing products, read the name carefully: Siberian ginseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus, is an entirely different plant and contains no ginsenosides at all.
Using the powder
This is loose powder rather than capsules. The usual approach is to dissolve a small amount in hot water and let it stand for a few minutes. Ginseng tastes earthy and bittersweet; anyone put off by that tends to stir it through tea with lemon or honey. The jar holds 3 grams, so the spoon goes in sparingly.
Storage and good to know
Keep the jar cool, dry and dark, and out of reach of young children. If you take medication, are pregnant or are breastfeeding, speak to your doctor first. The same category at Avalon Magic Plants holds ginkgo biloba extract 10:1, mucuna pruriens with 98% L-dopa, hops flower extract 10:1, yerba mate extract 10:1 and motherwort extract 12:1, among others.
