The Ginseng Book  Nature's Ancient Healer
Fulder, who has long grown and researched the plant, gives ginseng the scientific and clearheaded treatment it deserves. He describes the differences betweenPanax schinseng, the Asian plant, andPanax quinquefolius, the American plant. Recounting the plant's history, he notes that American ginseng was second only to furs as an export in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He shows that, practically, ginseng is an adaptogenic that works well at healing when the body is out of balance, as when chemotherapy and radiation batter a cancer patient. Properly used, ginseng can provide either short-term stimulation or long-term restoration to a stressed system. It is not a panacea, but it has done much and promises to do more as scientists continue to learn about it.William Beatty