Ginseng Drying Machine | Polygonatum, Claw Ginseng or Tiger Ginger

How to Dry a Ginseng without Losing its Healing Properties.

How to dry Ginseng properly without losing its medicinal property. Airteck Ginseng Drying Machine is precise in giving the right temperature retaining the exact amount of moisture. Learn how the meticulous steps in drying this unique Chinese medicinal herb.

What is Ginseng & How it Benefits You?

Polygonatum is also known as chicken head Polygonatum, yellow chicken dish, pen tube dish, claw ginseng, tiger ginger, chicken claw ginseng. It is a plant of the genus Polygonatum, with its rhizomes running horizontally, cylindrical, with enlarged nodules. The impeller is raw and sessile. Medicinal plants have the effects of nourishing the spleen, moisturizing the lungs, and producing body fluids.

The rhizome of Polygonatum is cylindrical. Because the nodules are enlarged, the “internodes” are thick at one end and thin at the other, with short branches at the thick end, 1-2 cm in diameter. The stem is 50-90 cm high, or up to 1 meter or more, sometimes in a climbing shape. Impellers are born, 4-6 per round, strip-lanceolate, 8-15 cm long, and 4-16 mm wide, and the apex is rolled or bent into a hook.

Polygonatum heat pump drying reference process

Harvest in spring and autumn, with the best quality in autumn. Dig the rhizomes, remove the above-ground parts and fibrous roots, wash away the soil, and steam them in a steamer until they are oily, then take them out and dry them. Or boil in water, remove and dry.

The Polygonatum, which has been trimmed to remove impurities, is layered and placed on a baking sieve. The baking temperature should be from low to high, and the maximum temperature should not exceed 75℃. If the starting temperature is too high, the surface of Polygonatum will scorch, and when the ventilation is low, it will become stuffy and deteriorate, and the quality will be reduced. Therefore, the stepwise adjustment of temperature is a key factor to improve the dry quality.

In the first stage, the temperature is maintained at 45°C-50°C, and the dehumidification must be fully turned on and kept for 3-5 hours. In the second stage, the temperature is controlled at 50℃-55℃, and the dehumidification starts from 1/3-2/3 and keeps it for about 6 hours. In the third stage, post-drying is carried out. The temperature is increased to 60°C-70°C until it is completely dried. The final dried Polygonatum requires no coking, and the best water content is between 12% and 13%.

To learn more drying techniques, please visit our HOW TO DRY knowledge base…