From a biochemical and pharmacological point of view, ginseng probably is the most thoroughly investigated plant on the planet, pharmacognosy professor Norman R. Farnsworth says.
Still, there is little if any conclusive scientific proof for any of the benefits ascribed to it.
Since 1975, Farnsworth, senior scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been compiling a database of literature about medicinal plants, marine animals and fungi. Ginseng , which occupies a sizable chunk of that database, illustrates how difficult it is to nail down specific health advantages.
"It's a pretty plant with red berries and pretty green leaves, but it's the root that's important," Farnsworth says.
"There are 25 species of true ginseng ," he says, including American, Dwarf, Chinese, Korean, Sardinian, Japanese, Himalayan, Siberian and Indian. Hundreds of tons are under
cultivation in Wisconsin."
The Japanese and Chinese eat it as a food and the Food and Drug Administration accepts it as such. But it's "nutritionally ludicrous," with almost no conventional food value. Chinese herbalists recorded its use as early as A.D. 25 for "curbing emotions, lightening the mind and increasing wisdom."
Today some claim it relieves the effects of aging, stress, impotence, fatigue, liver disorders, coughs, immune system disorders, headaches, nervousness, rheumatism, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many other disorders, he says.
"It reminds me of the phrase: `That which is good for everything is good for nothing,' " Farnsworth says.
Using his database, Farnsworth has found that there are 442 recorded biological effects attributed to ginseng . Of the 554 chemical compounds in it, 49 have been shown to affect the biology of other plants or animals.
So Farnsworth searched for scientific studies to support the effects ascribed to the root. He looked for test-tube experiments, those in living organisms, studies in humans and those proposing biologicall modeels.
Looking for which effects scored in all categories, he concludes that ginseng may have a role in relieving stress, fatigue, nervousness, cardiovascular disease, rheumatism, diabetes and headaches.
No reliable studies supported its reputation as an elixir for impotence.
Still, none of this is conclusive. Even if you accept the results of these studies, there are other practical problems, he says: What is the correct dosage? How do you know what's in
the bottle you buy?
" Ginseng is very expensive, so there may be adulterants. In fact, an estimated 85 percent of the products may have no ginseng at all. There is little or no government regulation."
And there have been precious few studies on the effects of ginseng on humans, even from South Korea, where it has been one of the country's largest moneymakers.
"Maybe the Koreans were afraid to do studies," Farnsworth says. "Maybe they did studies and the results were so disappointing, they lost them."
What Farnsworth's data does show, however, is that some things should be looked at. That in itself is a big step.
- BY: STEVEN PRATT(Chicago Tribune)
- SOURCE: The Orange County Register1995.09.07
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