Panax

The Panax (ginseng) genus belongs to the Araliaceae  (ivy) family. Panax species are characterized by the presence of ginsenosides and gintonin. Panax is one of approximately 60 plant genera with a classical disjunct east Asian and east North American distribution. Furthermore, this disjunct distribution is asymmetric as only two of the ~18 species in genus are native to North America.

Etymology
The name Panax, meaning "all-healing" in Greek, shares the same origin as "panacea" and was used for this genus because Carl Linnaeus was aware of its wide use in Chinese medicine.

Panax species
Genus Panax
 * Subgenus Panax
 * Section Panax
 * Series Notoginseng
 * Panax notoginseng (Burkill) F.H.Chen (known as san qi, tian qi or tien chi)
 * Series Panax
 * Panax arunachalensis Taram, A.P.Das & Tag
 * Panax assamicus (Assam Ginseng)
 * Panax bipinnatifidus Seem.
 * var. angustifolius (Burkill) J.Wen
 * Panax ginseng C.A.Mey. (Asian ginseng, Chinese ginseng, Korean ginseng, Asiatic ginseng, Oriental ginseng)
 * Panax japonicus (T.Nees) C.A.Mey. (Japanese ginseng)
 * Panax quinquefolius L. (American ginseng)
 * Panax sokpayensis Shiva K.Sharma & Pandit
 * Panax vietnamensis Ha & Grushv.
 * Panax wangianus S.C.Sun
 * Panax zingiberensis C.Y.Wu & Feng
 * Section Pseudoginseng
 * Panax pseudoginseng Wall.
 * Panax stipuleanatus H.T.Tsai & K.M.Feng
 * Subgenus Trifolius
 * Panax trifolius L.

Hybrids:
 * Panax ginseng × Panax quinquifolius
 * Panax japonicus f. typicum × Panax quinquifolius