‘Green Gold’ Rush Could Hurt Crop : Ginseng: The supply of wild roots appears to be diminishing as the number of diggers increases.

Ginseng? KA-CHING!

The wild root--revered in Southeast Asia--is fetching up to $500 a pound this year for the best grades, more than twice last year’s wholesale price.

“It’s higher this year than it’s ever been,” said Tim Brown, manager of Wilcox Natural Products in Pikeville.

That has some worried about the future of Panax quinquefolium, the five-fingered plant Appalachians call “green gold.”

Frank O’Brien, a Chrysler Corp. retiree who lives near the West Virginia border, fears he already is seeing the effects of higher prices. While O’Brien usually digs about five to six pounds of the root a year, he said he had to comb the hillsides this season just to scrape up three pounds.

“There’s so many people out there digging it at that price. That scares me,” O’Brien said. “The high price is great but it does have its disadvantages.”

So much ginseng is cultivated that there is little danger of the species dying out. But overharvesting and poor management could endanger the supply from the wild, the category most prized by Asians who use it to treat everything from headaches to impotency.

Cultivated ginseng brings in $25 to $40 a pound.

“Until the last two or three years, I was quite confident that there really wasn’t any danger to the wild ginseng population,” said W. Scott Persons, author of the book “American Ginseng: Green Gold.”

“But now that the price has gotten so outrageous, people are going into the woods who are not part of a family heritage, so to speak, of ginseng hunters,” the Tuckasegee, N.C., resident said. “And they don’t have the attitude of ‘I’m going to be back in seven years to the same place.’ . . . It’s ‘Boy, what a way to make some money quick here.’ ”

While there are no national figures, experts agree it is taking more and more roots to make up each pound of ginseng sold. That means people are not letting the plants mature the suggested seven or eight years before digging, said Carol Carson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arlington, Va.

Wild ginseng production in the 19 states that have federally approved programs was 110,075 pounds in 1993, the last year for which figures were available.

Kentucky is the nation’s leading wild ginseng producer, with 26,508 pounds reported in 1993. West Virginia was next with 19,224 pounds.

There already are indications that this year’s prices will mean a bumper crop.

“We’ve had several dealers call in for extra forms, which means they’re making a lot more purchases than usual,” said Marge Boyer, ginseng coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

Attempts have been made to protect the wild species without regulating the diggers to death.

In Kentucky, for instance, all interstate ginseng dealers must have a permit. Maryland and other states also require diggers to obtain permits.

And in some states, the roots can be dug and sold only during certain months.

In Kentucky, the digging season starts Aug. 15, and the roots can be sold until March 31. North Carolina prohibits digging and selling between April 1 and Sept. 1.

And Kentucky and other states require diggers to insert the ripe berries or seeds from mature plants by finger into the ground where they dug the roots. That is because ginseng has a hard time reproducing itself in the wild.

Tony Hayes, purchasing manager for one of the nation’s largest ginseng dealers, said he has never seen prices so high in his 22 years in the business. But he said that probably cannot be attributed to overharvesting.

“Supply and demand, simple economics,” said Hayes, who works for Wilcox Drug Co. in Boone, N.C. “The demand is up, and the supply is off a bit.”

Hayes is less concerned about overharvesting than he is about the destruction of the plant’s habitat.

Ginseng thrives on sloping ground shaded by mixed hardwood trees, he said. More and more of that habitat is being lost each year to mining, road building, logging and other activities.

“If you go in and strip-mine a whole mountain down, where’s your habitat?” he said.