TOPIC: Dry roots quality

I understand that wild roots are much lighter than cultivated roots, and can be hand-sliced using kitchen knife.

I've been slicing some dry wild roots recently from the same batch and found some to be firm, with clear center ring and whitish flesh throughout, but there were some that seems to be discolored (light tannish brown without visible brown ring), and a little honeycomb, corkish like. These were from good size roots with long necks, easily over 10yrs.

Are the roots with the honeycomb corkish texture diseased? They seems to look fine from the outside.

I'll try to post some photos of the slice roots later. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

what do you mean, without visible brown ring

Waiting for pictures.

guy

Hi Guy,

Usually a slice ginseng would have a thin creamy white outer ring, then a thin brown ring, followed by the creamy white core.

In my case, the root looks evenly brown throughout the cross section and kind of honey comb.

I'll post some pictures later tonight when I get home.

Thanks.

Here's the photo


The center one is the normal looking root. All the other 4 slices looks unusual to me. Or is that normal as well?

Here there is another root that seems to have some reddish brown spots on some of the slices

Kman,

I kept back a few nice 8-10 year old roots for my own consumption and at first just broke off the root hairs or thin parts of the roots, but eventually had to try and slice them up.

I tried it with a sharp knife but had no luck, roots were just too hard.

I ended up using a pair of tin snips and that worked nicely.

As I was cutting up the roots I noticed that there was some variation in color and density between the roots. From the outside they all looked the same & normal.

I dried my wild roots at inside air temp (72 degrees) on a window screen - like I always do, and they were good and dry when I sliced them up (had been dry for a couple months).

Not sure if the variations in color and density is normal or not, but I did see some of that too in my wild seng.

TNhunter

TNhunter,

Thanks for sharing.

I believe this batch was dried recently, so it is still slightly soft, it doesn't break of like twig, but is slightly bendable.

I suppose the lightness of wild ginseng is due to the varying density.

Kman,

The first photos showing two on the bottom with brownish red spots,this would be graded low. The one in the centre appears good, it has the ivory look right thru.

Wild roots tend to have a vascular texture from the skin to the ring with some going past but these appear excessive. As for the light pinkish brown colour thats not normal either.

Were these bought as chips?

Maybe cutting roots that are not fully dry(bendable)give this
look, because a dry root is like a rock and needs a good knife to make slices and then they are not nice slices like these.

guy

Hi Guy,

Thanks, for your insight. These were actually from a bunch of larger whole roots, all with long necks, between 10-20 yrs. 19 of them in a 1/4 lb.

About half of them were slightly spongy and soft. Slice like butter with fruit knife. The other half like the center piece, nice even creamy texture and woodier. This needed a solid heavier knife to slice thru nicely.

Kman

Don't know what to say... soft and spongy is not good dried root. Our old is hard as a rock when dry and slicing is near impossible unless you heat it.

guy