The pictures below: Roots may increase the purchasing price 10-30% those with higher age, prettier in shape and with a neck longer than 2-4 inches.
They are considered less valuable than the one that has blackish mud in its wrinkles circle. The price difference between them is about 5-10%.
Freshly harvested wild ginseng cannot be stacked together or placed in plastic bags for a long time. If you are planning on drying storage your ginseng, the fresh ginseng should be cleaned the same day.
When fresh ginseng roots were stacked together for too long if the temperature is above 40°F, the white inner color could turn to grayish-yellow or reddish-yellow, or even worse: molded. For this reason, cleaning and drying of your freshly harvested wild ginseng in time are very important to ensure its quality and value.
Precautions: Stacking the fresh roots for prolonged periods of time, as shown in the photo below, will result in the spongy inner becoming moldy, yellow-pink, smells bad, and unusable.
When cleaning the wild ginseng, do not place them in running water. Instead, we suggest to soak and wash them. Soaking in water for 5-10 seconds each time, repeated the process for 3-4 times in order to gently remove the dirt.
As we know, the black color mud in the wrinkles is very important factor in determining the age of wild ginseng. Excessive rinse will make the surface appears so white that looks like non-wild ginseng.
Running water cleaning will decrease the active ingredient from the surface, and also wipe out too much blackish mud color from the skin
At the same time, insufficient cleaning should also be avoided as excess amounts of black mud covered on ginseng roots will also result in a decrease in the purchasing price.
The picture below shows unwashed or insufficient washed wild ginseng. There is still a large amount of dark mud left. This will affect the purchase price.
Picture Below: After soaking too long, then put them into the fridge. The root cracked because it was situated with an excessive amount of water. Therefore, result in the quality decrease.
Picture Below: After long soaking, and not drying in time, the plants become molded. This is another factor for value decrease.
After washing, the fresh ginseng should be dried promptly. Do not stack them tangle together as the picture shown below:
If it happened that digging caused ginseng root hurt or break, it can’t be directly put into the fridge. Instead, it must be cleaned and dried in the same day. This is the key to keep them from rotten.
Putting the fresh wild ginseng in the airtight containers and not in the fridge which is set under 33-38°F will cause the fresh ginseng to go bad.
The correct way in the drying process will increase its value
– Picture Below shows the ginseng that is not acceptable: it was cut and not properly dried. The inside has rotted and turned a yellowish color with a sour, alcohol-like odor.
Don’t let the ginseng go rotted before drying, it will smell like a dead fish even after drying! Not acceptable for purchase.
Picture Below can’t be acceptable either: they’d been kept inside in the airtight plastic bag for too long. Mold has grown, and the inside turns yellowish color, with a rotten smell.
The picture below: The good one: This is an example of ginseng root with 100% active ingredient. Look the color of its inside spongiform is milky-white like.
On the contrary, the wrong way will decrease its quality, and thus the value. Every year, by the poor digging and drying process alone will result in a loss of more than 5%.