THE ROLE OF GINSENG DRYING IN THE HARVEST AND POST-HARVEST PRODUCTION SYSTEM FOR AMERICAN GINSENG

An American ginseng(Panax quillquefolium L) industry has emerged in British Columbia, Canada over the past ten years. Interest has grown very rapidly and with this development, attention is now moving away from field production issues and emphasis is being directed to enhancements in ginseng storage, drying and processing. There is a dearth of knowledge on these aspects even though they are crucial to international competitiveness. Enhancement dicatates the application of a systems approach to optimizing the harvest and post - harvest production system(crop digging, pre - washing cold storage. washing, drying and post - drying storage). Research in British Columbia to date has focussed on drying and storage issues and has resulted in the design of an enhanced commercial drying system. The role of dryer management, loading rates, airflow rates and pre - drying cold storage on American ginseng root drying rates and root quality were examined. From the dryer management experiments, there are distinct advantages to size sorting root to yield optimum drying rates. If unsorted root is used, efficiency is increased if the trays are systematically rotated. Loading rate experiments illustrate that increasing rates above those currently used in commercial dryers are possible without any sacrifice in quality. This has significant implications for commercial drying. Pre - drying cold storage is a most significant tool for managing drying operations. Over a period of six weeks, no discernable decrease in quality was found as a consequence of cold storage. Further, the moisture loss and the associated root surface changes(loss of surface soil in storage for example) provide new challenges for root quality management. Continued research and technological innovation will be crucial in addressing the demanding challenges of the future.