Ginseng - History and Folklore
In the middle of the first millennium B.C., a Taoist priest recorded that sorcerers swallowed ginseng with cannabis in order to "set forward time and reveal future events." As ginseng is neither a hypnotic nor a hallucinogen, its use for magical purposes was a sign of the respect accorded to the plant even at that early time. In the fifth century A.D., Chinese physician Shennong wrote that the use of ginseng prolonged life. The genus name Panax means panacea or cure-all in Greek. The Chinese name, jen shen, means man-root.
Indigenous peoples of North America and Asia used ginseng as a remedy for a broad spectrum of illnesses. In traditional Chinese medicine, the herb has been used more frequently for general preventive purposes.
The demand for American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) since the early eighteenth century proved so strong that the business of gathering wild "sang" for the Asian market has very nearly exhausted the U.S. supply.
