Short Lecture "Sustainable “Mountain Cultivation” of medicinal plants such as Panax ginseng and Coptis japonica in Korea and Japan"

Although herbs like garlic (Allium sativum) were already domesticated crops in Sumerian times [1] others are not cultivated even today, making wild collections of questionable sustainability necessary. Unfortunately, the establishment of farming techniques for such wild medicinal plants may not be a viable solution. E.g. “wild” fox populations in European inner cities exhibit the same “domestication syndrome” in their body and skull structure [2] that was observed in domestication experiments [3], indicating that domestication may happen unintentionally. As “domestication syndrome” is also documented in plants [4], the “genetic sustainability” of wild herbs when entered into cultivation is questionable, as their inevitable evolutionary adaptation to cultivation may cause the loss of genetic information for relevant active metabolites. In Korea, so called “mountain cultivation”, or literally "forestry cultivation", of ginseng (Panax ginseng) was established in the 14th century as wild ginseng is (in accordance with the above) traditionally regarded as more effective. Seeds are collected from wild plants in a reserve and germinated in pots to one- year-old seedlings. These are "released" into long, narrow beds in otherwise natural forests. This removes genetic pressures other than those of the wild biotope from the germ line guarantying “genetic sustainability”. The roots are harvested after ca. 9 years and known in Korea as "mountain ginseng" or "wild-simulated ginseng". In the 18th century, “mountain cultivation” was imported to Japan and successfully applied to Coptis japonica. “Mountain cultivation” may in the future yield sustainable access to further medicinal plants that are currently still sourced from wild collection.

 

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• References

• 1 Kramer SN.. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and CharacterPhoenix Books 1971
• 2 Parsons KJ. et al. Skull morphology diverges between urban and rural populations of red foxes mirroring patterns of domestication and macroevolution. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287 (1928): 20200763
• 3 Trut L, Dugatkin LA.. How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary scientists and a Siberian tale of jump-started evolution. University of Chicago Press; 2017
• 4 Allaby RG.. Domestication Syndrome in Plants.In: Smith C.(eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer; New York: 2014

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. November 2023