Use of Ginseng in Medicine With Emphasis on Neurodegenerative Disorders

Abstract

Abstract. Ginseng, the root of Panax species, is a well-known herbal medicine. It has been used as a traditional medicine in China, Korea, and Japan for thousands of years and is now a popular and worldwide used natural medicine. The active ingredients of ginseng are ginsenosides which are also called ginseng saponins. Recently, there is increasing evidence in the literature on the pharmacological and physiological actions of ginseng. However, ginseng has been used primarily as a tonic to invigorate week bodies and help the restoration of homeostasis. Current in vivo and in vitro studies have shown its beneficial effects in a wide range of pathological conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, immune deficiency, and hepatotoxicity. Moreover, recent research has suggested that some of ginseng's active ingredients also exert beneficial effects on aging, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. In general, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and immune-stimulatory activities are mostly underlying the possible ginseng-mediated protective mechanisms. Next to animal studies, data from neural cell cultures contribute to the understanding of these mechanisms that involve decreasing nitric oxide (NO), scavenging of free radicals, and counteracting excitotoxicity. In this review, we focus on recently reported medicinal effects of ginseng and summarize the current knowledge of its effects on CNS disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

The effect of method, standard and sample components on the total antioxidant capacity of commercial waters assessed by optical conventional assays

“…Tea contains numerous components with antioxidant activity, such as polyphenols (catechins, epicatechin, epigallocatechin) and vitamins (Cabrera, Artacho, & Giménez, 2006;Neyestani, Gharavi, & Kalayi, 2009). Ginseng is an herbal medicine with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities (Radad, Gille, Liu, & Rausch, 2006). Ginkgo biloba is rich in phenolics and flavonoids (Liu et al, 2007).…”

Protection by Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer against the genotoxicity of doxorubicin in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster

“…The root of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (Araliaceae), a common plant in eastern Asia, is widely used in Chinese natural medicine (Lee et al, 2004;Yoshikawa et al, 2007). Panax ginseng is also being increasingly prescribed in Korea, Japan and Western countries for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases (Yun, 1996;Radad et al, 2006). Several studies have demonstrated the therapeutic potential of ginseng in the central nervous system through its ability to improve longevity (Attele et al, 1999;Li et al, 2000) and cognitive performance (Kennedy et al, 2004;Reay et al, 2005), as well as its adaptogenic properties in contributing to the equilibrium of the human body under prolonged stress (Kumar et al, 1996).…”

“…Of the various compounds isolated from ginseng roots, the ginsenosides are known to have multiple pharmacological activities (Deng and Zhang, 1991;Baek et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2007). At the doses commonly used, the dried roots and rhizomes of ginseng are not toxic to rats, dogs and humans (Radad et al, 2006).…”

PgLOX6 encoding a lipoxygenase contributes to jasmonic acid biosynthesis and ginsenoside production in Panax ginseng

“…The fundamental pharmacologically active ingredient of ginseng, ginsenoside, has wide beneficial activity (Radad et al, 2006). Activation of ginsenoside biosynthetic genes and ginsenoside accumulation are mediated by elicitor-induced signaling molecules (Rahimi et al, 2015a).…”