Description

Notoginseng root is a frequently prescribed herb in Chinese medicine. The scientific names for the plant are Panax notoginseng and Panax pseudoginseng. The herb is also referred to as pseudoginseng, and in Chinese it is called Tien qi ginseng, San qi, three-seven root, and Mountain paint. Notoginseng belongs to the same scientific genus, Panax, as Asian ginseng. In Latin, the word panax means "cure-all," and the family of ginseng plants is one of the most famous and frequently used of all families of herbs.

Notoginseng grows naturally in China and Japan. The Chinese refer to it as "three-seven root" because the plant has three leaves on one side and four leaves on the other. The herb is a perennial with dark green leaves branching from a stem with a red cluster of berries in the middle. It is both cultivated and gathered from wild forests, with wild plants being the most...