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   During the course of my analysis. I became curious as to why the wood section of the coal contained such particularly large quantities of germanium. On further examination of various coals, I detected the existence of medullary tubes, which are the vessels that plants use to draw nutrients from the soil. In short, I reasoned, the germanium in coal was first of all in the plants which were the source of the coal. In other words, it was primarily in living matter, and in my judgment, did not enter the coal later from the surrounding soil or mud.

    New discoveries engender doubts and opposing views. As might be expected, the scholarly experts violently ridiculed my theory. For my part,  however, the connection between germanium and plant life was too clear to be doubted. I saw a definite need to further clarify the relationship between plants and germanium. I turned to an acquaintance of mine in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry who assisted me in obtaining nearly 40 varieties of different species of bamboo from various parts of the country. I conducted a microanalysis of each of the samples and, as such advanced analytical equipment as an atomic absorption photometer was not available in those days, the time involved in this work was incredibly long.

My efforts were fruitful, however. Analysis showed that several varieties of bamboo grass contained 15 to 20 ppm of germanium. This is a significant amount in the light of the critical amounts of such pollutants as small as one ppm of organic mercury in foodstuff or one ppm of sulfurous acid in the atmosphere considered fatal to living things. Viewed from this perspective I could not help thinking that the particularly large amounts of germanium in the bamboo grass must be of importance to its existence.

    Continuing my analysis with other plants, I detected considerable amounts of germanium in tea leaves, oak leaves, chlorella, and so forth. I soon began to suspect that the existence of germanium in these plants has some connection with chlorophyll, with germanium perhaps acting as a catalyst with chlorophyll.

Again, to consider the semiconductor characteristics of germanium, there is also the recently discovered Honda-Fujishima effect whereby a semiconductor placed in water and exposed to sunlight acts as a photo electrochemical cell electrolyzing water into oxygen and hydrogen.

("Electrochemical photolysis of Water at a Semiconductor Electrode" Nature. Vol. 238, July 7, 1972, 37.  ) 

In terms of plant biology, when water is broken down into oxygen and hydrogen by this method, oxygen is discharged from the plant and hydrogen combines with the carbon of carbon dioxide absorbed by the plant to form carbohydrate. In effect, this means that in the process of assimilation plants produce starch sugar electrochemically from water only, a fact which seems to verify that germanium or some other semi conducting substance is essential to the growth of plants.  In fact, although in quantities which vary a great deal from plant to plant, all plants seem to contain germanium.

Observing such phenomena, I was astonished at how the laws of nature seemed to support the hypothesis that germanium plays a very important role in relation to biochemical life. Discoveries lending verification, however, followed in rapid succession.

   I was further surprised to find that the plants containing unusually large quantities of germanium were without exception those valued as Chinese medicinal herbs. This discovery renewed my admiration for the accumulated wisdom and experience of Oriental medicine with its 2,OOO-year history, and added to my incentive to uncover the biochemical effects of germanium.

My first steps were to measure the germanium content of those plants reputed to have beneficial effects in the treatment of malignant tumors. I obtained the following results.

           Shelf fungus (Trametes cinnabarina Fr.) 800-2000 ppm

           Ginseng (from Shimane Prefecture, Japan) 250 ppm

           Ginseng (from Shinano district, Japan) 320 ppm

           Sanzukon (Codonopsis Tangshen) 257 ppm

           Sushi (Angelica pubescens Maxim.) 262 ppm

           Baternut{Trapajaponica Flerov) 239 ppm

           Boxthorn seed (Lycium Chinese mill) 124 ppm

           Wisteria knob (gall) ( Wisteria ftoribunda ) I 08 ppm

           Pearl barley ( Coicis  Semen) 50 ppm

           Gromwell (Lithosemi Radix) (Lithospermum officinale) 88 ppm

    Shelf fungus, heading the list above, for centuries has been reputed to be effective in the treatment of cancer, and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn has even referred to this remarkable herb in his book, Cancer Ward.

    Another plant reported to be effective in the treatment of cancer is a moss found in a small area of the Japanese countryside. I obtained some and was moved rather strangely to find that it also contained a rather large amount (250 ppm) of germanium. It should be pointed out, however, as later research revealed, 250 ppm is far from being an effective dosage

against cancer.

    Next, I analyzed those plants which are generally regarded as conducive to good health and found that they also contain fairly large quantities of germanium :

           Aloe 77 ppm

           Comfrey (Symphytum Peregimum) 152 ppm

           ChIorella 76 ppm

           Gar1ic 754 ppm

           Bandai udo (Aralia cordata) 72 ppm

           Bandai moss 255 ppm

Note: The germanium content of the plants analyzed in both of the above lists is not distributed evenly throughout the plant body. With ginseng, for example, even ginseng grown in Chinshan, Korea, where the world's most fertile crops of ginseng are produced, germanium is concentrated in the area extending from the center of the roots to the stems of the leaves;

while the heavily concentrated area registers as much as 4,000 ppm, the peripheral root hairs contain no germanium at all.

    Results of the above analyses and subsequent experiments eventually enabled me to give a plausible explanation for the presence of germanium in plants. Ginseng, for example, will not grow freely but requires soil of a particular consistency. Even then, from ancient times it has been known that after one good crop it takes up to 30 years to produce another crop of

harvestable quality in the same soil. I conducted an experiment by obtaining ginseng sprouts approximately 8 cm in length and planted them in separate boxes. One box was sprinkled with a solution of germanium acetate and the other was left untreated. Six months later, the sprouts to which the germanium acetate was given had grown to a height of 30 cm and gave off the distinct aroma of ginseng. In contrast, the sprouts in the second box had grown to about 10 cm and gave off only a faint scent of ginseng. Obviously, germanium played an important role in the growth of this plant.

(*Ginseng is the common term for either of two herbs from the family Araliaceas,  Panax quinquefolium and Panax schinseng.   The former is the North American ginseng while the latter is common to Northeast Asia.  Noted for its soothing properties, from time immemorial the Chinese have considered ginseng a cure for most illnesses, and the generic term "Panax" itself originates from a Greek word meaning "Panacea.")

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