Q. Is it true that ginseng is a magic herb that can cure practically all kinds of diseases? What are the health benefits of ginseng?

—Elmer T., Las Pinas City

A. Ginseng has numerous reported therapeutic effects but it is not a panacea or “cure-all.” In fact, no Chinese materia medica ever listed ginseng as a cure-all. However, it is a remarkable plant that may indeed have a lot of medicinal properties.

Ginseng is the collective name for 11 species of herbs with fleshy roots that belong to the Panax genus of the Araliaceae family. The more common species or varieties are Panax ginseng (Asian ginseng) and Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng). Ginseng plants grow in regions with cold climates, mostly in northern China, Korea and eastern Siberia. The southernmost ginseng is Panax vietnamensis, which grows in Vietnam.

Incidentally, Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) is not a true ginseng. The plant does not belong to the Panax genus and its roots are woody instead of fleshy and do not contain ginsenosides, the saponins that are mainly responsible for the reported medicinal properties of ginseng.

In addition to ginsenosides, ginseng roots also contain an insulin-like protein, an anti-aging substance called maltol and various minerals, vitamins and polysaccharides.

Traditionally, ginseng roots are taken orally to improve physical endurance, increase the body’s resistance to stress, treat type II diabetes, lower blood pressure, normalize liver function, stimulate the thyroid gland, and, treat sexual dysfunction in men. Long-term use of ginseng reportedly improves physical and psychological efficiency without causing sleep disturbances.

Unfortunately, despite the countless anecdotal reports that attest to the medicinal benefits of ginseng, pharmacological and clinical studies that have so far been conducted on the plant have yielded inconsistent results. The inconsistency in the results of the scientific studies to date probably stem from several causes including the fact that many of the initial scientific studies on ginseng used the wrong plant. Additionally, in instances when the right plant was used, relatively cheap, immature and non-potent roots were utilized. Highly potent wild mountain ginseng grows only in the Manchurian mountain areas and to be of optimum benefit, the roots are best harvested when the plant is at least 80-100 years old. Accordingly, highly potent ginseng root is very expensive—more than US$ 100,000.00 per ounce.

In those scientific studies on ginseng that have yielded positive results, ginseng was found to be a central nervous system stimulant at low doses but a sedative at high doses. Likewise, some study results suggest that ginseng has some analgesic, anti-convulsant and antipyretic properties. Furthermore, ginseng seemingly diminishes circulating free radicals in the blood, which means that, like other free radical scavengers such as vitamins E and C, it may have anti-aging and anti-cancer properties, and may protect people against degenerative illnesses.

Ginseng, however, is not without adverse effects. When taken in excessive amounts or for the wrong conditions, it can lead to disastrous effects including hypertension, restlessness, insomnia, general nervousness and some other neurologic manifestations.

The other downside of ginseng is that the really potent roots are very expensive such that very few people can afford them. Most of the preparations available in the local market that claim to have ginseng, actually have very little, oftentimes insignificant, amount of ginsenosides because the ginseng they contain come from immature plants.

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