increasing the habit of taking pepsin or other after-dinner pills to relieve the fullness and distress so common to the American people. Ginseng has the known ability to penetrate the delicate tissue our blood fails to oblige, thus arousing the malfunction of the lymphatic glands.
It is a powerful antispasmodic and suggests its use in other spasmodic and reflex nervous diseases, such as whooping cough and asthma. For many people Ginseng has had beneficial results in the home for general strengthening and appetite, as well as to relieve eructations from the stomach, neuralgia, rheumatism, gout, irritation of bronchi or lungs from cold, gastroenteric indigestion, weak heart, spinal and nervous affection.
Ellingwood, speaking of the medical properties of Ginseng, says:“ It is a mild sedative to the nerve centres, improving their tone, and if persisted in, increases the capillary circulation of the brain.” Dr. Raymond Bernard A. B. M. A., Ph. D., says:“ The term‘ aphrodisiac’ should not be misunderstood, and we must differentiate between aphrodisiacal drugs which produce their effects by irritation of the sexual centres and herbs like Ginseng which regenerate and rebuild the vitality but do not act by mere stimulation or irritation.” A modern Chinese herbalist avows that it is“ most energy giving, and is distinguished by the slowness and the gentleness of its actions.” Ginseng is known to give off organic radioactive rays resembling the Gartwitch rays of onions which stimulate vital processes in living cells. It is adaptable to the treatment of young children as well as the aged.
GINSENG Panax quinquefolium, L. 1— Flowering plant 2— Cross section of flower 3 – 7— Different forms of the L. roots( Medicine Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1961)
Dose: To make a tea, take 3 oz. of powder( Ginseng 6 – 7 years old), add 1 oz. of honey and 60 drops of wintergreen, and blend. Use 1 teaspoonful to 1 cup of boiling water, let it stay a little short of the boiling point for 10 min., drink as hot as you can before each meal. To make tea from the dried leaves, steep as you would for ordinary teas. Excellent for nervous indigestion. Homoeopathic Clinical: Trituration and tincture of the root— Appendicitis, Debility, Headache, Lumbago, Rheumatism, Sciatica, Sexual excitement. Russian Experience: The history of Ginseng has come through periods of belief and disbelief in many continents when laboratory technicians could not give explanations to its unalterable physiological and psychological accomplishment of centuries of belief. For the latest information on Ginseng you must go abroad. Up to 1964 – 5, Anglo-American literature did not pay too much attention to the long-held belief in the useful properties of Ginseng.
China has always been a good market for Ginseng, the highest prices being paid for old roots. About seventy years ago a Chinese Emperor sent a present of the best selected roots to a Russian Tzar. Being unaware and suspicious, the Russian official understandably though it best to have the root analysed to see why so much importance was given to this man-like root. The Military Academy of Medicine was elected for this purpose, as the international diplomat was a military figure. The top staff, heads of wisdom, could not find any health-giving properties after long and careful research. So at this time Ginseng was thought of as a Chinaman’ s prejudice, and was once again rejected