How to identify the authenticity of American ginseng

American ginseng may be the best choice for nourishing food in most people's definition. However, when buying American ginseng, we also correctly and clearly understand the types and varieties of American ginseng. In fact, most of the American ginseng sold on the market are fake. If you buy fake American ginseng, the gain will outweigh the loss. So what are the ways to distinguish the authenticity of American ginseng?

Authentic American ginseng tastes sweet and bitter, is cool in nature, and enters the lungs and stomach. Its main ingredients include ginsenosides, resins, volatile oils, sugars, etc.

American ginseng is divided into three types according to quality. The first type is good ginseng, which looks darker in color. The color of native American ginseng is darker than that of domestically transplanted American ginseng. The shape is mostly short and thick spindle-shaped, with horizontal texture.

The texture of domestically transplanted American ginseng tends to be vertical. The shapes are mostly smooth, slender spindle or cylindrical. Observing from the inner layer of the slice, the surface is uniformly light yellow, with fine and clear chrysanthemum-petal-like radiating texture. It is light in weight and dense in texture, with a fresh fragrance, not dry, and has an oily feel. The second type is sick or dead ginseng. This kind of ginseng is like a dead wood and has no medicinal value. The third type is ginseng without enough water.

The so-called insufficient water means that the medicine is used before it can take effect. This kind of ginseng naturally cannot achieve the same efficacy as authentic American ginseng. Some unscrupulous operators, blinded by greed, use sulfur to smoke slices of diseased or dead ginseng. From a rough surface appearance, they look similar to the real thing, but a closer look reveals that: ginseng slices smoked with sulfur are whitish in color, heavy in texture and powdery on the surface, the inner layer of the slices is mostly solid, without chrysanthemum-shaped texture, and have no fragrance.

The quality of American ginseng is closely related to its efficacy. Consumers should carefully identify and select it when purchasing.

In recent years, the Ministry of Health has also conducted random inspections on imported American ginseng products, including capsules, granules, tea bags and herbal slices, and found that the market for imported American ginseng is chaotic, with inferior and counterfeit goods prevalent. The main problems are that the products do not contain American ginseng, there are no licenses and standardized labels, and counterfeit or forged expired licenses are used. Some products are "three-no" products, with no factory address, no production date, and no shelf life.

1. American ginseng is the dried root of the American ginseng plant of the Araliaceae family.

Properties: The wild species is cylindrical and long spindle-shaped. 2 to 6 cm long, 0.5 to 1.1 cm in diameter, without reed head, fibrous roots or branch roots. The surface of the unpeeled ones is earthy yellow or off-white; the peeled ones are white with pink. The whole body is covered with dense gray horizontal stripes, especially dense on the top. The stripes are often ring-shaped and darker. The texture is loose, the cut surface is yellowish white, and has fine chrysanthemum-like texture. It has a slight fragrance, tastes bitter and sweet, is sticky, and can produce saliva in the mouth.

The imported cultivated varieties are called seed ginseng. Generally, they have large branches, no rhizomes or fibrous roots, but one or two branch forks. The body has many straight lines, the cut surface is yellow-white, the heart is solid, and there are no chrysanthemum patterns.

If you don't want to buy fake American ginseng, you must learn the correct method to identify American ginseng. First of all, we can identify it based on the appearance, smell and many other aspects. Some American ginseng is processed, and some is whole, so we can use the correct identification method to identify the authenticity of American ginseng.