Chungbuk National University research team has succeeded in mass-producing cultured roots using a 150-year-old wild ginseng plant.

The research team led by Professor Park So-young of the Department of Horticultural Science at Chungbuk National University unveiled the mass production site of cultured roots derived from a 150-year-old wild ginseng plant on the morning of the 16th at the commercial tissue culture facility of the Oriental Herbal Natural Products Center in Jecheon City. The team stated that, after cloning 50g of analytical samples provided by the Korea Traditional Simmani Association in 2022 and conducting research over more than three years, it established a mass-production technology for cultured roots and succeeded in mass-producing wild ginseng cultured roots using a 10-ton-scale bioreactor device.

According to the research team, this technology enables up to seven production cycles per year with a culture period of 45 to 50 days. In addition, each bioreactor can produce an average of 1 ton of cultured roots. This is a level similar to the amount produced over six years from 1 hectare (6.25 tons) under the conventional open-field cultivation method, and the team explained that productivity per unit time has been dramatically increased.

Analysis showed that the produced wild ginseng cultured roots contain 2 to 3 times higher levels of ginsenosides, the main functional components, compared with existing red ginseng. Ginsenoside F1 and notoginsenosides 1 and 2, which are rarely found in ordinary ginseng, as well as Mc ginsenoside, known as a wild ginseng-specific component, were also detected. The research team emphasized that this achievement is being evaluated as a case that presents an innovative turning point for the medicinal plant production system, which has depended on traditional cultivation methods.

Professor Park stated, “This study is the first case in the world to establish an industrially stable mass-production system while preserving the genetic characteristics and functional components of wild ginseng as they are,” adding, “We will seek to develop this as a production base for high value-added bio-materials applicable to various fields such as functional foods, pharmaceutical ingredients, and the cosmetics industry, and thereby strive to lead the global cellular agriculture market.”

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