Appalachian Ginseng Foundation

AGF Newsletter
Issue No.25                                                            Fall 2005
A project of
Appalachia -- Science in the Public Interest
50 Lair St., Mount Vernon, KY 40456
www.a-spi.org               aspi@a-spi.org
Phone (606)256-0077   Fax(606)256-2779

Ginseng Grower Challenges

West Virginia Ginseng Growers Association Annual Meeting

by Randi Pokladnik

November 3, 2005

On August 3, 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced new restrictions on the export of wild ginseng. This restriction is a result of recent population studies on public lands, which the FWS believes shows a decline in the wild population. Panax quinquefolium, American ginseng, is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and according to that listing, it must be monitored to ensure that international trade of the plant is done in a way to prevent the species from becoming threatened or endangered. FWS has ruled that wild ginseng must now be a minimum of 10 years of age for legal export. Previous restrictions limited export to plants five year or older. This new restriction does not pertain to cultivated ginseng or to wild plants harvested for local consumption. The restriction, issued without invoking the usual public comment portion of the process, caught the ginseng community by surprise.

In response to these new restrictions, the West Virginia Ginseng Growers Association’s fall meeting held October 15 at Morgantown, West Virginia focused on the effects that this restriction may have on growers. The meeting, attended by ginseng growers, gatherers, researchers, extension personnel, state land managers, and other interested parties included participants from Ohio, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Some of the major issues discussed during the daylong meeting included:

· inability to accurately ascertain the age of a ginseng plant

· removal of ginseng from CITES listing

· impact of this restriction on growers and the region’s economy

· problems with definitions used

· recognition of ginseng as an agricultural crop and subsequent placement of ginseng programs under state and federal agricultural programs

· lack of support (research and technical) for growers

· information about ginseng cultivation

· creation of a national ginseng growers organization

The age of a ginseng plant can be approximated by either counting the number of leaves or the number of bud-scale scars on the rhizome. However, evidence given by growers and gatherers at the meeting illustrated that these techniques are not as accurate as believed. It was pointed out that often plants can remain dormant for several years, failing to send up any above ground growth and thus would have fewer bud scars. One grower reported finding a three-prong plant with 75 bud scars (it is reported that a four prong plant would be an indicator that the plant was at least ten years old). In addition, a plant’s root may often be broken or damaged during harvest making the aging process inaccurate. Attendees wondered how the restriction could be adhered to when the aging process was tenuous at best.

The current listing of ginseng on the Appendix II of CITES was called into question. CITES specifically regulates wild populations, however, many attendees had issues with the definition of the word “wild” and questioned if any truly wild populations of ginseng are currently left in the region. Ginseng grows in many parts of Appalachia because it has been stewarded by local gatherers. This is especially true in states, like West Virginia, where gatherers are required by law to replant seeds when they harvest roots. If the definition of wild is applied in the strictest sense of the word, then much of the ginseng found in Appalachia today is not wild but cultivated through decades of harvesting and replanting.

One attendee stated that “there is no set wild population, we don’t know what’s been planted and what’s wild.”Many of the people in attendance were concerned about the effects this new restriction may have on the economy of the region. It was pointed out that ginseng is a 52 million dollar a year market, with much of that money “going into the pockets of the poorest people in the nation.” An increase to a ten-year harvest age would affect ginseng gatherers, who said, “If left to 4 prong only plants, there won’t be a harvest.”

Ginseng growers would also be affected by the restriction. If they wanted to sell their crops for top dollar as wild, then they would have to abide by the ten-year limit. If they sold as cultivated, then they might be sacrificing profits (wild usually sells for higher prices then cultivated). Ginseng growers in West Virginia are proposing legislation that would certify crops. This process would protect growers against regulations that cover wild ginseng. A state forester would inspect the grower’s land prior to planting and determine that his ginseng has been cultivated and is not wild ginseng that has been growing on his property. This discussion of wild versus cultivated and differences between economics and regulations covering the two illuminated a major problem: defining “what is and what isn’t wild ginseng”.

Many attendees felt that ginseng needed to be recognized as an agricultural crop. Currently, Kentucky is the only surrounding state that places its ginseng program under the department of agriculture. Placement of ginseng programs under state and federal agricultural programs might garner more support financially and technically. It was stated that research support for ginseng was severely lacking. Suggested areas of research included: predation controls, use of soil amendments, seed germination, effects of logging, expansion and improvements in marketing, and biochemical studies of gensenosides.It was expressed that this was a “niche crop” and that growers may benefit “by becoming more visible”.

Several growers shared “nuggets of wisdom” about their cultivation techniques. Some pointed out the need for deer controls and techniques to thwart poaching. Seed suppliers (Wisconsin versus Appalachia) were discussed with the “variability in genetics from region to region” being a debated topic. A recommendation to wash seeds in a solution of one cup of bleach to one gallon of water was made. This was suggested as a means to control certain diseases that might affect germination.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the creation of a national ginseng organization. This group would serve as an umbrella to encompass similar organizations working on common issues. It was felt that a larger, multi-state entity would have more impact when it came to dealing with issues at the federal level. Additionally, it was suggested that growers and gatherers contact their state and federal legislators about the problematic nature of the new restrictions put in place by the US FWS. Attendees were encouraged to write letters to local papers and educate the public on the possible effects of this restriction. Finally, tentative plans were made for early November to travel to Washington with a group of growers /gatherers to speak to legislatures about this restriction.

I’d like to give many thanks to the West Virginia Ginseng Growers Association and Fred Hays for spearheading this meeting and allowing me to attend.

Fall Workshop Given

In Warren County, Kentucky this past month, University of Kentucky ( U.K.) County Co-op Extension Agents received a one day workshop on growing “virtually wild” ginseng which was presented by Syl Yunker and A-SPI. Along with the 10 western Kentucky Extension Agents in attendance, material was provided to 6 other County Agents who were not able to attend, placing the information in a total of 16 western KY counties.

Syl’s talk included his method for a grower to have a sustainable harvest of “virtually wild” ginseng. The harvest and planting pattern of 1/10^th of the total area each year gives the grower an annual harvest every year with a healthy stand of ginseng in the Forest. The largest market for North American ginseng is and has been the Orient, namely China, but the marketing of local ginseng in the domestic market is growing each year as more North American baby boomers hit their middle years and are looking for health alternatives. Some of the new products containing ginseng were discussed, such as a new flavored beer from Anheuser-Busch, Inc. called B-to-the-E which provides caffeine, guarana, and ginseng.

As Kentucky places ginseng under the Dept. of Agriculture there are funds available to the U.K. Extension Agents for materials and workshops in the Agro-Forestry Produce - Training the Trainers program.

NOTES FROM THE LOIDL LABORATORY

The beginnings of the Loidl Laboratory go back to the forest and the protection of the forest from clear cutting, one of the main focuses of ASPI. Al Fritsch, then executive director of ASPI, in discussions with staff and consultants saw ginseng as an excellent means to protect our forests. In order to grow healthy wild ginseng plants, a good dense forest cover is needed. So ASPI saw ginseng as a valuable crop, which if growing in a forest, would cause the owners of that forest to protect the trees from removal as a cash crop. Since ginseng is a much more valuable crop and it can be harvested much sooner and more frequently than the forest, without destroying the forest, it was decided to promote the growth of virtually wild ginseng. Syl Yunker has been a faithful consultant for ginseng growing and harvesting. To help bring ginseng growing to the small farm owner, the Appalachian Ginseng Foundation was started.

Even though ginseng can be harvested sooner than the trees of a forest, ginseng plants, in particular the root, is not desired by buyers until it is twelve to fifteen years old or older. For the farmer of a small forest this is a long time to wait for a cash crop. As a result, the leaves were investigated as a source of the ginsenocides which were the active ingredients in the mature root. Since the leaves feed the root, it was thought that the leaf would also have the ginsenocides. A search of the literature on ginseng surfaced a few articles discussing the extraction of ginsenocides from the ginseng leaf. ASPI decided to develop the extraction procedure and a facility was needed for this study.

A small tool shed on the ASPI demonstration site was selected to be converted into the chemical extraction laboratory. A generous donor from Germany, Mr. Loidl, supplied the funds to convert the tool shed into the laboratory. While this was being accomplished by Eddie Stallsworth, Mr. Roger I. de la Rosa, a Jesuit volunteer with a doctorate in chemistry, was doing further literature search on ginseng and was obtaining chemicals for the laboratory. A small centrifuge, other laboratory equipment and glassware was available from work that ASPI had done on testing for pollution in streams in the past. Later, Al Fritsch and the author attended a University of Kentucky auction and obtained a scale, cell homogenizers and glassware and other laboratory equipment that have been very useful in the extraction process. The laboratory is used winter and summer to produce extracts and refine the extraction process.

With the leaves falling again we are reminded to have some more ginseng leaves collected for extraction and testing in the Loidl laboratory. Syl Yunker in Kentucky and a friend of Paul Gallimore in North Carolina will be collecting the leaves this fall. Testing of the extracts on an LC/MS (liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer) will be done in the Biochemistry Department of Berea College by students of Dr. Matt Saderholm. He has a student who will do an independent study on the LC/MS. With this combination of instruments the student will be able to analyze for the ginsenocides in the samples. That is, he will be able to separate out the ginsenocides in the LC and determine which ginsenocide is in each of the samples in the MS. These ginsenocides are the active ingredients in ginseng which do the healing, protecting and regulating of the health of the people who use it. The results of this work will be out in our next newsletter.

A TLC (thin layer chromatography) plate was recently run of samples that have been extracted over the last several months in the Loidl Laboratory. Some of the extractions were done in just water and some were done in methanol/water. The water samples seemed to pull out one or two different ginsenocides than the methanol/water samples, but the methanol/water samples extracted many more ginsenocides than the water extraction. The LC/MS study will be able to identify the ginsenocides in a sample and eventually we hope to be able to correlate what is found on the TLC plate with the LC/MS study.