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.

Keywords

• X-rays
• tomography
• growth years
• micro imaging
• Raman