Brief Introduction of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer

Yun, Taik Koo

Abstract

For many many thousand years, mankind has been using various plants as nutrient, beverage, cosmetics, dye and medicine to maintain health and to improve quality of life. In Aisa, particularly, Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is considered to be the most precious plant among herbs, and ginseng has been in the spotlight worldwide. Even in the Western world, where there are greatly advanced research facilities and highly qualified man-power available, and are regarded to be capable of conquering any hard-to-cure ailments, many peoples has recently been reported to use herbal medicine, particularly ginseng. In the present compilation of papers, many scientists contributed papers pertaining to "Chemopreventive effects of ginseng". In order to facilitate the readers understand easier and better, I catalogued this collection as follows: The spiritual nature of ginseng in the Far East, the history of ginseng, nomenclature and geographical distribution of ginseng, and type of ginseng products.