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Ginseng: the root of being

By Lee Harris

“Come to Ginseng with an open heart, for its enigmatic qualities have baffled man long before our time.” I wrote in the Alchemical Almanac and handbook or herbals highs, published in the winter of 1972. In those heady days we were a small, select band of devotees to whom Ginseng was a magical root that held within it the secret of eternal youth. Dating back to antiquity the ‘man-plant’, ‘man-essence’ was first recorded by Emperor Shen-nung 5,000 years ago as the highest, most potent herb among the thousands mentioned. There is a rich history and mythology surrounding this ‘root of life’, and we seekers felt a certain kinship to this inscrutable herb that had evaded man in his quest to understand its hidden secrets. On a winter night in that same year, a young Oxford graduate Stephen Fulder, a Ph.D. in biochemistry, was sitting in a library of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, doing a routine survey of scientific journals when he came across an article describing the discovery that an Oriental plant, ginseng, when added to human cells that were growing In the laboratory could preserve them and prolong their life. This intrigued him, as he was involved with research into the ageing process, and also happened to be growing human cells in the laboratory at the time. Here was a plant which he had never heard of before, which could not only prolong the life of cells, but was apparently used, as ‘a tonic and preventative of old age debility’.

Shortly afterwards, Stephen Fulder and I, who were old friends, ran into each other and discovered that we both had an interest in ginseng, though mine was alchemical and his biochemical. He begins his book, The Root of Being; Ginseng and the pharmacology of Harmony, the first full and critical exploration of the remarkable healing properties of ginseng, with that meeting:

“It was shown to me reverently by a long-lost friend of mine. He was now trading in herbs, knick-knacks and strange discoveries. Ginseng was his prize find. At the back of his shop, amid the old sweet jars full of aromatic herbs, was a balsa-wood box containing the ginseng. It was a root; maroon gnarled and crusty, as if aged by the elements. Yet it was also crystal-line and peculiarly translucent. I could even see light through it when I held it up to the light bulb. I tasted some. It was extremely hard and its flavour evoked the sweetness of the liquorice, the bitterness of orange peel and the dryness of dust.

My friend bubbled with enthusiasm about it. ‘It is quite unique, the potion of the Emperors. The Chinese take it whenever they can, especially the old people. They say that it gives them strength and energy, you know, to keep them going, and that it is useful against impotence too. I take it every morning with my tea. It makes me feel buoyant, almost sparkling, and very positive. But it is also mysterious. It doesn’t work in the same way for everybody. The Chinese say its effect is related to you inner state. Why not do some research on it?” Reminding him that it took seven years for the ginseng root to grow maturity, he began his quest, which eventually flowed from the meeting of the concepts of Oriental medicine and the practice of science, to an understanding of a new generation of subtle, non-toxic medicines which may well change the face of pharmacology. The harmony remedies, Adaptogens, are biologically active substances of plant or animal origin that achieve their effect by improving inner equilibrium ad increasing human capability. The ancient medical system built upon the Taoist view of health taught that the primary activity should be to establish harmony so as avoid disease, and this art of prevention was consequently developed to an unparalleled degree. East and West were coming together in a great current of cross-fertilization and Panax ginseng came under the microscopic and analytic eye of scientific man. By clinical trial and error, by discovering its chemical structure and active constituents, the gurus of science have prized open some of its secrets, revealing ginseng’s enigmatic nature.

The ‘grand old man’ of ginseng research is Prof. I. Brekhman of the Institute of Biologically Active Substances in Vladivostock, in the far east of the U.S.S.R. I attended a scientific symposium on ginseng in Lugano in Switzerland in 1976 and heard him read a paper summing up his findings after thirty years of study. In carrying out tests on mice and men he discovered that it helped the body adapt to changing conditions, intensified the stamina effect and seemed to be cumulative. He coined the term Adaptogens, to cover similar substances, ‘pantui’ from the antlers of the deer that had this harmonizing effect. In the Soviet Union millions of people whose tasks require fast physical actions, mental concentration and co-ordination now take the harmonizers. Also at the symposium was the eminent behavioral scientist, Prof. W. Petcov, head of the Faculty of Pharmacology in the Institute of Specialized and Advanced Medical Training, Sofia, Bulgaria, who has presented scores of scientific publications on ginseng using the classical conditioning methods of Pavlov, but with rats instead of dogs. Petcov discovered that ginseng stimulated the cerebral cortex of the central nervous system, the information-processing area of the brain of the brain “Through simultaneous reinforcement of the process of excitation and inhibition”. In Pavlovian terms the healthy ability to depress one centre and light up another, to excite and inhibit, constitutes the adaptability of the individual. He concludes that ginseng is the first truly balanced stimulant, which does not cause excitation, insomnia or discord. In Tokyo, Japan, Prof. Shibata broke through the pure form of ginseng and cracked its saponin or glycoside code, identifying its active constituents and structure. Some of its components were found to stimulate, while others had a sedating quality, effecting a complex balanced arousal. As the devotees of science persevere still further, discovering many of the healing properties of the root ginseng. I wonder when we’ll reach the stage when Western medicine will drop the folly of synthetic drugs and search once more among the plant kingdom for remedies that bring us into closer harmony with our natural environment. It was Emperor Shen-nung who wrote many thousands of years ago about the ginseng plant, that it was ‘a tonic to the five viscera, quieting the animal spirits. Strengthening the soul, allaying fear expelling evil effluvia, brightening the eyes, opening the heart, benefiting the understanding and, if taken over a period of time, will invigorate the body and prolong life’. Maybe science will reach the same conclusions as the ancient sage. Meanwhile the Russians are giving their cosmonauts adaptogens for that ultimate in human adaptability and stress experiences, the journey into space.

Stephen Fulder, in The Root of being acknowledges me for first awakening his interest in ginseng and keeping the ginseng bottle boiling thereafter. I would like to acknowledge him for his magnificent effort, using the skills of science and the ancient teachings of the East, in deciphering much of the puzzle that is ginseng, and by doing illuminating a way towards a more refined relationship with the medical substances of our environment. “Ginseng doesn’t just go to your head, it gets everywhere,” we used to say.

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