UNCA researchers hope to unlock ginseng secrets

Dale Neal, dneal@citizen-times.com

Folklore has long said wild ginseng is good to boost energy, and dealers have been willing to pay up to $700 per pound of the plant that grows wild in Western North Carolina. 

Now UNC Asheville researchers are trying to unlock the chemical and genetic secrets of wild ginseng, perhaps giving growers a better chance to produce a wild-simulated ginseng.

 UNCA biology faculty members Jonathan Horton, David Clarke and Jen Ward started researching ginseng in 2008, working closely with students. Their research got a big boost this year with a $98,872 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

Part of their research has focused on finding the specific genetic markers in ginseng that identify those valuable medicinal compounds.

“We’re potentially working with people at the North Carolina State University Mountain Horticulture Crops Research and Extension Center to do some plant breeding to, hopefully, develop specific cultivars that might produce specific medicinal compounds,” Horton said. “That is, obviously, long term, but we’re hoping if we identify these markers, then we can selectively breed plants to produce specific compounds, which might add value to cultivated ginseng.”

Increasing the value of cultivated ginseng would help reduce the overharvesting and poaching of wild ginseng.

“We’ve had students comparing the production of ginsenoside in different organs of the plant,” Horton said. “The plants are primarily harvested for the roots, but we were interested in seeing if the shoots and leaves had adequate levels of ginsenoside.”

If those medicinal compounds can be found in ginseng leaves and shoots, instead of just the roots, ginseng could be harvested without destroying the plants.