ELEUTHERO. PRICKLY GINSENG RELATIVE

COMMON NAME: Eleuthero

LATIN NAME: Eleutherococcus Senticosus

BOTANICAL INFORMATION: Eleuthero (lat. Eleutherococcus Senticosus) belongs to the Araliaceae family (lat. Araliaceae), widely represented in tropical and subtropical regions.

Eleuthero is a shrub with a height of 2-2.5 meters or more. The shoots are straight, the bark of the trunks is light brown, and the branches are almost black in color. The shoots are covered with thick spikes. The rhizomes of the plant are smooth from the surface, or slightly wrinkled, light brown, with a weak aromatic odor. Numerous subordinate roots extend from the rhizome. The leaves are alternate, long-leaved, palmate five-separated, with obovate, finely serrated leaflets along the edge. The flowers are small, on thin long pedicels, collected in spherical umbrellas. The stamen and bisexual flowers are pale purple, and pistil flowers are yellowish in color. The fruits are berry-like, almost spherical, and black-blue. The seeds are yellowish, with a fine-mesh surface. Eleutherococcus Senticosus blooms in July-August. The fruits ripen in September-October.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION: Rhizomes and roots contain special glycosides - eleutherosides (indicated by the capital letters of the Latin alphabet: A, B, B1, C, E, F, G). The plant also contains essential oil (up to 0.8%), resins, gums, lipids, polysaccharides, coumarin derivatives, flavonoids, tannins.

INTERESTING FACTS:

Like many tall bushes and creepers of the Far Eastern jungle, Eleuthero prefers to keep roots in moist soil, but without waterlogging, and apical shoots in bright sunshine.

The generic name of the plant is derived from Greek: “eleutherios” (free, independent, generous) and “coccos” (grain, seed). Species name comes from lat. sentis (spiny), prickly. The trunk and shoots are covered with many spikes.

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