By Eric Brand

Here are some nice specimens of San Qi that show the root with its tails and head still attached. Most San Qi is much tighter and denser, and all the rootlets are trimmed off, as is the head (neck). By looking at the whole root like this, we can see the relationship between San Qi (Panax notoginseng) and Ren Shen (Panax ginseng). Both have the characteristic neck coming off the top, and both have a plump, dense body with smaller rootlets. They also both have a distinct and similar flavor. There is an unmistakable characteristic ginseng taste that unites them, but otherwise their flavor is quite different from one another.

I bought the roots in the photo in an herbal wholesale market in Southern China. They were still a bit fresh, as though they were only recently dried, and they are not as tight and dense as the standard product. Perhaps they are not as dry or perhaps they are not quite as good, I'm not really sure. The vendor tried to pass them off as wild because of their distinct appearance, but wild San Qi is basically extinct and the wild product is never seen in trade. In these specimens, the small rootlets are fresh enough to chew. Trying to bite into standard San Qi would be unthinkable because it is way too dense.