In Asia, ginseng is considered to be the king of all herbs, dates back of use in China thousands of years ago. It is highly valued and treasured in history. It is hard to grow and takes years to cultivate, must be grown in high altitudes, plus a bunch of other conditions make it hard to survive. The ginseng that I'm referring to is, Panax Ginseng, grown in Asia, especially in Northern China and South Korea, where the bulk of the supply/market is situated at. "Panax" derived from old Greek word, meaning "All healing". Coincidentally the shape of a ginseng looks like a human, all these talks makes this herb a legend and somewhat mysterious, folk lores, especially of the medicinal kind (TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine), consider it magical, next to the fame of Reishi mushroom. Like in most Chinese legends/myths, the search for immortality, in Taoist alchemy, ginseng has the reputation of making one who takes it live forever, this is far-fetched I know, or at least bestow the person to live a long life for those who takes it regularly.
A thousand year ginseng? Well, in Chinese culture and history, in folk lore, myths and legends, this ginseng root has survived thousands of years (I don't know exactly how many thousands, it could be tens or hundreds of thousand, perhaps even more) of its life in the ground somewhere found near the mountains. In Chinese legends, popular myths these go in hand in hand with saints, hermits, monks, kung-fu masters/chi-gong masters, meditation masters, a much better word, sages of an immortality deity kind, whoever these individuals are, masters himself in seclusion, away from society, to cultivate themselves spiritually, or come to some godly realization of themselves and the universe. Cultivate themselves in the use of chi or ki, to finally become immortals like the gods. Ginseng and the other famous herbs are consumed for these individuals who master themselves in the mountains.
But anyway, this post is just some sort of rant about this herb and it's legendary status that it has become my favourite herb to take. Its very expensive to buy in root form, For all I know the best quality of ginseng comes from Korea. In Korea, ginseng is a big part of their economy, it's big there, and the bulk of supply grown from there is the worlds best.
