Standardization of Panax ginseng : Current Status of Global Trade, Demands, and Development.

, as a kind of rare and valuable Chinese materia medica with the largest global trade volume, has been widely applied in many fields, such as medicine, food, health care, and production of daily chemical products. It is widely used in Asia, Europe, and America. However, its global trade and standardization present different features and an uneven development in different countries or regions. As the main country for its production and consumption, in China is characterized by its large cultivation area and high total yield and is mainly sold as a raw material or primary processed product. By contrast, produced in South Korea is mainly sold in manufactured products. Besides, European countries, as another consumption market of , pay more attention to the research and development of its products. Although has been widely recorded in various national pharmacopoeias and regional standards, the current standards of differ in quantity, composition, and distribution, and the existing standards cannot be enough to meet the demands of its global trade. Based on the above issues, we systemically summarized and analyzed the status and features of standardization and put forward suggestions on the development needs of international standardization of to guarantee its quality and safety, regulate the order of its global trade, and resolve trade disputes, thereby promoting the high-quality development of the industry.