OCR Text |
Show High Time Miracle Root? By FLORENCE BITTNER There's certainly nothing . new about the belief in the marvelous powers of ginseng root. It's just that we are in the midst of a back to nature move brought on by a massive mas-sive distrust of things man wrought so ginseng root has been rediscovered in our land. BEHIND THE current upsurge up-surge of popularity of this faintly man-shaped root lies 5,000 years of medical and some spiritual success. Ginseng Gin-seng root has been known and craved in the Orient for thousands of years as Jenshen, the Man-Root which the Chinese believed cured everything from female troubles trou-bles to infertility, to bloodshot eyes. It was the Geritol of the ancients. The Cherokee called it Otali Gunli "It Climbs the Mountain" Moun-tain" and the Ojibwa called it Shte-na-bi-o-dzhi-bik "The Man Root" and the Menominee knew it as matcestasa. or "Little Indian." In-dian." AN ANCESTOR of mine called it gold. Thomas Hancock, Han-cock, brother of Governor John of Massachusetts saw it as a get rich scheme. He bought up all of it he could find; virtually cornering the market in New England and had it in a warehouse ready for shipment to China where he would sell it for a fantastic price. He would have ton, except that he didn't get it out of the warehouse before the British blockaded the New Knglnnd harbors. His ginseng gold rotted and he died a pauper. STILL IN demand in China, this root is enjoying an upsurge up-surge of popularity in the health food stores in our country. Bottles of extract, packets of tea. bars of soap and even emollient lotions with ginseng from Korea. Siberia and eastern United States are offered. Because of current advertising adver-tising laws, they don't use the spiel from former days: "Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, do you, I say, do you or do you not have trouble trou-ble with overweight, underweight, under-weight, twitching eyeballs?" AND THERE'S trouble brewing, ladies and gents, right here in River City. Yes sir, trouble, I say. Because some say the Korean root is superior to the Siberian and others say the "five fingered root" of America is known to have more important powers than its oriental cousin. It is a gift of the gods, the root of heaven, a tonic so sublime, so subtle, so gloriously non-specific that it can aid the old, the young, the weak and the strong. THE FOOD and Drug Administration Ad-ministration takes iis usual dim view of the entire ginseng phenomena, but that does not keep some farmers from selling their crops at fantastic prices, sometimes reputed to be as much as $3,000 per pound in China. Goldenseal, one of its products, was known to cure canker sores for generations. Mother would dip a finger into in-to the vile tasting powder and hold it on the sore. Ii didn't really go away all that fast, but it did stop hurling.. Well, maybe it didn't so much stop hurting as I decided I'd rather hurt ihun get another dose of thai awful stuff. EVERY SO often Grandma would make a pot of tea from her goldenseal and feed il m us. Which probably accounts for a lot of things, but I won't go into those if you don't mind. The wild plant which grows in the northeastern part of our land and in the Canadian woods, looks much like a wild strawberry. It requires 5 to 7 years to mature and is on the endangered species list. After years of trying, however, enterprising en-terprising farmers in Wisconsin Wis-consin are growing it as a money crop. WHETHER the claims for miracle powers for this unusuai shaped root are true or exaggerated, one thing is certain. A healthy bumper crop of ginseng is certain to cure an ailing pocketbook. |