The elemental composition of the wild ginseng leaves

Wild-growing ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mey., Araliaceae Juss. Fam.) is an endangered medical plant. The biochemical composition of "root of life" is studied well enough; on the contrary, the elemental composition data remains extremely in-sufficient. The aim of this study was to identify the species specificity of the elemental composition of ginseng and to conduct an initial assessment of the level of its plasticity. The study of the elemental composition of wild ginseng leaves has been based on material obtained from the natural habitat of Spassk and Khasan district of Primorsky region. Leaf chemical composition analysis has been per-formed by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence method. A significant difference was found between the samples from the areas in comparison regard-ing the content of manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Titanium has not been detected in Spassk region plant leaves. On the contrary, the difference between two samples from Spassk region was in-significant except for a slightly larger content of Mg (1.6 times) in the plants coming from the protected forest area. It was concluded that comparing to other medical plants the wild-growing ginseng's leaf elemental composition can be characterized by high copper and zinc and low manganese element content. The results indicate the necessity of further development of elemental method to identify the origin of ginseng samples and to conduct their medical and biological evaluation. Further research based on more representative sampling from differ-ent parts of the species' range is needed in order to conduct more detailed characterization of the spe-cies specificity of ginseng elemental composition and its plasticity.