Eleutherococcus, the plant that endures: from the taiga to the cosmonauts

The plant of this articleEleutherococcus — Siberian Ginseng · Eleutherococcus senticosus★★★★★5.0(2)from €9.00View →

The quiet kingdom — roots, polypores, mycelium. The resilience of the living, ready for every day.

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Eleutherococcus senticosus is a shrub of the Far Eastern taiga, of the Araliaceae, the ginseng family. It grows in dense thickets in the mixed forests of the Russian Far East, north-eastern China, Korea and the island of Hokkaido, and its stems are so covered in fine needles that trappers nicknamed it the devil's bush. To reach the root, you go through a wall of thorns.

The name as a signature

Eleutherococcus comes from the Greek eleútheros, free, and kókkos, the seed or berry: the free seed. Senticosus, in Latin, means thorny. The free seed covered in thorns.

In Chinese, the plant is called ci wu jia (刺五加). Ci is the thorn; wu jia is the old Chinese name for these shrubs with five-leaflet leaves. Japan calls it ezoukogi, the ukogi of Ezo, the old name for Hokkaido. The name Siberian ginseng was born at the end of the 1960s, when the root reached the American market: same botanical family as Asian ginseng, Panax ginseng, but a separate genus, with eleutherosides in place of ginsenosides.

In the Chinese herbals

Chinese herbals have described these thorny shrubs since antiquity under the name wu jia, and the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the classic attributed to the Divine Farmer, places them among its superior plants, those taken regularly. In ancient Chinese medicine, David Winston and Steven Maimes report, it was mostly drunk as a wine, macerated with other plants: yuan zhi, lycium root, mu gua, niu xi.

Vladivostok, 1959

It was in the twentieth century that the root entered modern history. In 1947, in Leningrad, the Soviet pharmacologist Nikolai Lazarev coined a new word: adaptogen. Along with ginseng, eleuthero was one of the first plants Soviet scientists filed under that word.

At the other end of the Soviet Union, in Vladivostok, Israel Brekhman first studied ginseng, rare and expensive, then turned to this thorny bush growing in abundance around him. In 1959 he put it forward as a root more common and less costly than ginseng. In 1962 eleuthero officially entered the pharmacopoeia of the USSR. An abundant Soviet literature followed, published in Russian and long out of reach for Western readers.

The cosmonauts' plant

The Soviet programme gave it to selected people: athletes, soldiers, chess players. Russian Olympic athletes received it at the end of the 1970s, and in 1977 eleuthero entered the space programme, for the cosmonauts. Hence its nickname, the cosmonauts' plant.

And the Evenki hunters?

Western herbal books tell how Evenki and Yakut hunters chewed the dried root during long winter hunts, and made decoctions of it before setting out. It is a beautiful story. We have not found it in the work of Siberia's ethnographers. The Evenki do live, among other places, in the Amur basin, where the shrub grows; the Yakuts live much further north, outside its range. So we pass it on as what it is: a story that travels with the plant in the books, while it waits for a source.

The House's root

We offer eleuthero in a single form: the crushed root, in 100 g and 200 g. It is sourced in China and comes from a certified organic supply chain. The whole root, with no standardised extract: the form that has long been simmered in China and in Siberia alike.

Siberian ginseng has a subtle, earthy flavour: a light bitterness, a sweet finish.

The morning decoction

• For a litre: 2 to 3 tablespoons of crushed root in 1 litre of water. Bring to a gentle simmer, lower the heat and leave covered for 15 to 20 minutes. Strain, and drink hot, in several cups over the day, or cold when the weather is warm.
• For a cup: 1 to 2 teaspoons of root for 250 ml of water, same gentle simmer.
• The roots can be used again once or twice.

It is drunk in the morning or early afternoon, over seven to twenty-one days, followed by a break of one to two weeks before coming back to it. The Russian tradition knows this short cycle; today's herbalists also describe cycles of eight to ten weeks followed by a two-week break. It is happily simmered with other roots and mushrooms: rhodiola, chaga or reishi can share the same pan.

Precautions

• Hypertension: eleuthero can raise blood pressure in some people. With hypertension, talk to your doctor before use.
• Cardiovascular disease (heart rhythm disorders, coronary disease): medical advice first.
• Active autoimmune disease, or immunosuppressant treatment: medical advice first.
• Ongoing treatments: take care with anticoagulants, digoxin, oral diabetes medication, corticosteroids and lithium; talk to your doctor before starting.
• Sleep disorders (sleep apnoea, narcolepsy) and psychiatric disorders (mania, schizophrenia): avoid without medical advice.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding: avoid, for lack of data.
• Taken late in the day, it can disturb sleep in sensitive people: morning and early afternoon suit it better.

When in doubt, your doctor before the plant.

Sources

• David Winston and Steven Maimes, Adaptogens (2007): Chinese and Soviet history, 1959, 1977.
• Israel I. Brekhman, Man and Biologically Active Substances, Pergamon Press, 1980.
• European Medicines Agency (EMA), Community herbal monograph Eleutherococcus senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Maxim., radix.
• J. Gerontakos et al., review of the Russian literature on Eleutherococcus senticosus, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2021 (PMID 34087398): entry into the USSR pharmacopoeia in 1962.
• Our supplier's technical sheet: origin and certification of the root.

Eleutherococcus — Siberian Ginseng★★★★★5.0(2)from €9.00View →