Medicinal Herbs

Acanthopanax Root Bark Extract

Eleutherococcus gracilistylus

Ngũ gia bì gai, the thorny acanthopanax, is a plant of the ginseng family whose small five-parted flowers, greenish white, gather into rounded long-stalked umbels at the leaf axils and branch tips from September to October, ripening by January into flattened black berries with two seeds apiece. The whole plant carries a fragrant essential oil. It grows wild in the tall, cold mountains of the north, most plentifully in Lào Cai, Lai Châu, Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn. Bark of stem and root is stripped in autumn, left to sweat until it turns fragrant, then dried in shade until the outer surface goes yellow.