People's Pharmacy

For more up-to-date information on drugs, herbs and home remedies visit The People's Pharmacy Home Site at peoplespharmacy.us

Ginseng

Posting Date: 09/04/2002

Uses

The most common use of ginseng in Chinese medicine was (and perhaps still is) as a general tonic, and scientists have devoted a certain amount of effort to studying ginseng as an "adaptogen."

This category, which doesn"t correspond to any widely used pharmaceuticals, implies that ginseng is helpful in counteracting stress.

Indeed, some researchers believe that the benefits of an adaptogen are apparent only when the organism has been stressed to its limits. Despite this, in a well-designed placebo-controlled study, ginseng ingestion for up to ninety-six days did not protect rats exposed to a highly stressful situation, having to swim in cold water.

In animals, ginseng is sedative at low doses and a stimulant at high doses. To some extent this is related to the effects of the different ginsenosides.

Ginsenoside Rb1has a sedative effect and lowers blood pressure. It also has anticonvulsant and analgesic activity, lowers fever and has some anti-inflammatory action.

Ginsenoside Rg1, on the other hand, is a stimulant and raises blood pressure at low doses, while at higher doses it has more sedative activity. At stimulant doses it can also aggravate ulcers and accelerates learning in animals.

Some studies of humans have shown that ginseng standardized extracts can help people react more quickly to both visual and auditory cues, increase concentration, and improve hand-eye coordination. Not all studies have reached similar conclusions.

Ginseng can change body biochemistry, and a careful study of fifty male physical education teachers demonstrated that they were able to do significantly more work (defined in kilogram-meters) after ginseng administration than after placebo.

Maximum oxygen uptake was higher. Holding workload constant, the teachers consumed less oxygen, produced less lactate in their muscles, and had lower heart rates when they had been given ginseng.