Novel Growth Age Characterization for Fresh Herbal Ginseng Based on Quantitative Counting of the Calcium Oxalate Crystals through FEG-ESEM

Abstract

To reveal the accumulation of the calcium oxalate crystals (COH Crystals) during the growth and development of the taproot of Panax ginseng, and develop a novel and rapid characterization method to evaluate the growth age of commercial ginseng, multiple methods in micro characterization techniques of SAXS, Micro-CT, FEG-ESEM and Micro-Raman were used to identify the COH Crystals and establish a quantitative counting method for growth age identification. In this study, a cross-analysis with multiple methods proved for the first time with a Raman and Energy spectrum that the high-density particles widely distributed in the parenchyma cells of the xylem and cortex are COH Crystals; we also first realized quantitative counting of the COH Crystals on the cross-section of fresh ginseng samples. Moreover, catering to the testing requirements of the modern trading of fresh ginseng products, we also specifically established an interesting and useful mathematical equation (Y = 2.3797X − 1.2404) for growth age identification. The technology and strategy in this study effectively compensated for the shortcomings of chemical testing and other methods in technical limitations; hence, the application of more ginseng varieties to perform the technical optimization is expected.

A novel method for age identification of mountain‐cultivated ginseng

“…The method used in this study can distinguish the two varieties quickly and easily. Previous studies focused on the microstructure of ginseng for age identification and depended on analyzing calcium and oxalate crystals through x‐ray crystallography, FEG‐ESEM (Fan et al, 2021; Ye et al, 2017), and so forth. Oxalate crystals are difficult to quantify, and these methods should be combined with an algorithm model to predict age.…”