Ginseng in Ohio

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Overview

Daniel Boone, often remembered as a pioneering woodsman in Kentucky for his fur trading prowess (among other things), made a good part of his fortune not only on furs and skins, but also on a small and unassuming plant known as ginseng that still grows throughout the forests of eastern North America.

The Asian form of ginseng was treasured for thousands of years as a cure-all in the tradition of Chinese medicine, but deforestation had removed much of its natural habitat even before Boone's time. When the connection was made in the early 1700s that a similar plant also grew in the forests of eastern North America, trade in American ginseng quickly commenced and has occurred ever since. Though Boone lost twelve tons of ginseng roots in 1788 when his boat overturned in the Ohio River on his way to market in Philadelphia, he did much better in subsequent years, amassing his fortune.

Still one of the world's highest valued plants, wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium L.) has a natural range that stretches from southern Canada to central Alabama and from the east coast to just west of the Mississippi River. As a high-value understory species, it has great potential as a stable additional income opportunity, when grown using a method that simulates wild conditions, for forest landowners with suitable habitat. While readers in locations outside of the natural range of wild ginseng may have heard of ion,erent, requiring significant capital investment, and produces ginseng roots of different form for a different market. Some producers in states like Wisconsin, Washington, and Oregon (and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia) grow ginseng, but primarily under artificial shade with high inputs of petrochemicals, especially fungicides, due to intensive planting techniques. It is worth noting that many of these operations are going bankrupt, due to international competition from countries like China.

While the wild form of ginseng has been widely recognized as an important plant within the tradition of Chinese Medicine, some Western scientists studying the potential medical benefits of ginseng are finding potential uses for the plant. Dr. Laura Murphy of Southern Illinois University, spurred to investigate the health benefits of the plant by her ginseng-grower brother, has recently reported that water-based extracts of ginseng may actually help standard chemotherapy drugs to work more effectively against breast cancer (Tuckasegee Valley Ginseng. Ginseng News From Tuckasegee Valley. Spring 2003). While these findings have not been specifically proven in humans, potential high-value markets for ginseng may prove highly beneficial for forest landowners with suitable habitat to produce wild-simulated ginseng.

Ginseng has been an important part of the culture in rural communities across its natural range, especially in the hills of Appalachia. Sangin,' place in the region, and many people even depend on it as a major, or at least supplemental, income source. Many diggers report that ginseng is much more difficult to find in the wild today than it was when they first began digging. Diggers who once walked only a half-mile through the woods to fill their bag must now walk several miles. Diggers in recent studies that indicate that the plant is becoming quite rare, and that the stature of the plant has actually become smaller across the range due to the heavy pressure of harvesting. And since each ginseng plant does not produce seed until at least its fifth season, natural recovery from harvesting can be a lengthy proposition. With wild ginseng being much harder to find, landowners who have planted ginseng seed in a manner that simulates wild conditions have found that they can produce roots that can sell as wild. Intentional planting can enable landowners with suitable habitat to contribute to the recovery of the species, while also diversifying their forest-based income.