Ginseng in Traditional Herbal Prescriptions

Abstract

Panax ginseng Meyer has been widely used as a tonic in traditional Korean, Chinese, and Japanese herbal medicines and in Western herbal preparations for thousands of years. In the past, ginseng was very rare and was considered to have mysterious powers. Today, the efficacy of drugs must be tested through well-designed clinical trials or meta-analyses, and ginseng is no exception. In the present review, we discuss the functions of ginseng described in historical documents and describe how these functions are taken into account in herbal prescriptions. We also discuss the findings of experimental pharmacological research on the functions of ginseng in ginseng-containing prescriptions and how these prescriptions have been applied in modern therapeutic interventions. The present review on the functions of ginseng in traditional prescriptions helps to demystify ginseng and, as a result, may contribute to expanding the use of ginseng or ginseng-containing prescriptions.

Anti-fatigue Effects of 20(<i>S</i>)-Protopanaxadiol and 20(<i>S</i>)-Protopanaxatriol in Mice

“…18,[27][28][29] Ginseng has been used for a long time in Asian countries to treat many disorders, including aging, fatigue, stress, tumor, and insomnia. 16,30) Its bioactive constituents are saponins, polysaccharides, and proteins. 16,17) Ginseng and its constituents show anti-fatigue effect.…”

Korean Red Ginseng (Panax ginseng) Potentiates the Inhibitory Actions of Testosterone on Obesity and Adipogenesis in High Fat Diet-Fed Castrated Mice

“…Ginseng has widely been used as a valuable medicine in Korea, China, and Japan for a long period (Yun, 2001;Yin et al, 2008;Park et al, 2012). Pharmacological studies have ○ CC This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.…”

“…Low testosterone levels induce increased fat mass and testosterone therapy in men with testosterone deficiency results in weight loss and a lower risk of metabolic syndrome (Yassin and Doros, 2013;Francomano et al, 2014;Kelly and Jones, 2015). In mouse studies, knockout of the gene encoding the androgen receptor results in obesity, whereas overexpression of the androgen receptor results in decreased adipose tissue mass (Rana et al, 2011;Semirale et al, 2011;McInnes et al, 2012;Varlamov et al, 2012).Ginseng has widely been used as a valuable medicine in Korea, China, and Japan for a long period (Yun, 2001;Yin et al, 2008;Park et al, 2012). Pharmacological studies have ○ CC This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.…”

Characterization of Chromosome-Specific Microsatellite Repeats and Telomere Repeats Based on Low Coverage Whole Genome Sequence Reads in Panax ginseng

“…Panax ginseng (Korean ginseng or Asian ginseng) is an important allotetraploid (2n = 4x = 48) perennial crop (Choi et al 2014;Jang et al 2017), highly priced for its ginsenoside, which is known to have a wide range of therapeutic effects (Court 2000;Park et al 2012). In addition, its sensitivity to light, slow growth (∼four years/generation) and low seed yield (∼40 seeds/plant) have contributed to its high price and a multi-billion USD market (Baeg and So 2013).…”