Panax species
Family: Araliaceae

The fleshy roots of several species of Panax have been used medicinally for centuries in var­ious Asian countries.

P. ginseng, from Korea and Manchuria, is used as a cancer treatment in China. It is now extremely rare in the wild and therefore expensive. It has almost reached extinction through overharvesting, and while it is possible to propagate this plant through tissue culture, commercial dealers in ginseng are generally not interested in this fairly uni­form product. The most sought-after roots are those which resemble human shapes.

American ginseng, P. quinquefolius, zone 3, is cultivated occasionally for export to Asia, but there seems to be no desirable alternative for devotees of the original ginseng root.