According to the American Botanical Council’s most recent Herb Market Report (HerbalGram #144), sales of dietary supplements with ginseng (Panax spp.) as the primary functional ingredient totaled approximately US$10.7 million in 2024 for the combined mainstream and natural channels.
“Ginseng” refers to several plant species within the genus Panax (family Araliaceae), which contains 16 species. The most commonly cultivated and used species are Asian ginseng (P. ginseng), American ginseng (P. quinquefolius) and tienchi (or sanchi) ginseng (P. notoginseng), which are valued for their well-documented and widely promoted health benefits.
“Asian ginseng is one of the most highly regarded plants used as herbal medicine worldwide, as evidenced by the use of the term ‘ginseng’ in common names of numerous herbs sold internationally,” said Stefan Gafner, PhD, chief science officer at ABC. These include so-called Brazilian, Indian, Peruvian and Siberian ‘ginseng,’ which are medicinal plants from various areas of the world that are not members of the genus Panax.
“Despite extensive cultivation of American and Asian ginseng, prices and demand are still relatively high, creating an incentive for economically motivated adulteration,” he added.
Scope of the issue
The new bulletin was written by Nilüfer Orhan, PhD, an expert in natural products chemistry and pharmacology. She recently co-authored a review paper on ginseng adulteration published in December 2025 in Natural Product Communications.
In that scoping review, Dr. Orhan, Dr. Gafner and Mark Blumenthal, ABC founder and executive director, reported that almost 25% of commercial ginseng products may be adulterated, with dietary supplements at greater risk than powdered ginseng root or ginseng tea.
Five- and six-year-old roots have a relatively high market value and can cost 30% to 60% more than four-year-old roots. Because of this, adulteration with younger roots is a common practice.
Other forms of adulteration include substitution with lower-cost Panax species, using excessive amounts of low-cost fillers or excipients, mixing extracted or waste root material with unextracted roots, and undisclosed blending of various non-root ginseng parts or roots of similar-looking species into authentic ginseng products. Additionally, some ginseng dietary supplements have been reported to contain undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The new BAPP bulletin summarizes the available scientific data on adulteration and mislabeling of ginseng roots, discusses analytical methods to detect adulteration and provides information about the taxonomy, uses, supply and market status of Asian, American and tienchi ginseng. The bulletin was peer-reviewed by 19 experts in medicinal plant quality control from non-profit organizations, contract analytical laboratories and the herb industry.
An old problem
According to BAPP, early accounts of Asian ginseng adulteration in China date back to the 18th century and document the admixture of cultivated or immature roots (considered adulterants at the time) to wild-harvested roots.
There are also reports from that time describing the sale of ginseng roots filled with lead to increase weight. Other adulteration schemes included wrapping a thread around the top portion of the root during steaming to create additional wrinkles, making the root appear to be older (and therefore more valuable) than its actual age. In addition, roots of numerous other plant species were sold as “Asian ginseng.”
These days, the most common forms of ginseng adulteration include the sale of lower-cost roots from other Panax species, previously extracted root materials sold as genuine root, and the admixture or substitution of ginseng root extract with ginseng leaf extract.
“I have been keenly interested and previously engaged in the commercial ginseng market for over 50 years,” Blumenthal said. “Back in the 1970s, I owned a small herb wholesale company that sold various types of ginseng products (roots, powders, extracts, teas) from Asian and American ginseng, plus tienchi ginseng.
“In 1979, when I was president of the Herb Trade Association (the predecessor to the American Herbal Products Association), we were successful in removing the fraudulently marketed ‘wild red American ginseng’ (a Southwest U.S. plant called canaigre, Rumex hymenosepalus) from the U.S. market. So, with a history of exposing fraudulent ginseng products, I have commissioned the publication of several papers over the years in ABC’s peer-reviewed journal HerbalGram on misunderstandings and confusion surrounding the name ‘ginseng.’ This activity of educating on authentic ginseng nomenclature has culminated in BAPP’s publication of the recent review of ginseng adulteration and now the new BAPP ginseng bulletin.”
The ginseng publication is the 32nd in the series of BAPP bulletins and the 102nd peer-reviewed document published by the program, which is led by ABC, AHP (American Herbal Pharmacopoeia) and the NCNPR (National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi).
Source: Botanical Adulterants Prevention Bulletin, 2026. “Adulteration of ginseng (Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, and Panax notoginseng) root and extracts”. Author: N. Orhan
