Ginseng discoveries

Welcome back to the new academic year and to the first installment of Ginseng Discoveries, a bimonthly (hopefully!) overview of what is currently happening in the world of ginseng research. In these overviews I intend to communicate interesting or important studies involving ginseng from the month.

So let’s kick off the series with a little bit of ‘uplifting’ news..…Ying and colleagues (1) have identified that bioactive compounds found within Panax ginseng called ginsenosides (you’ll be hearing a lot about these) could prove beneficial in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Ginsenosides can achieve this by helping reduce the removal of something known as cyclic guanosine monophosphate and via enhancing endothelial nitric oxide synthase; ultimately resulting in enhanced blood flow.

Interesting research from Kasi et al., (2) has identified that an extract of ginseng is an efficient anti-amyloidogenic agent. When proteins are not formed properly they can stick together and form fibrils, which can disrupt the normal function of tissues and organs; for example the beta amyloid plaques found within Alzheimer’s disease. If ginseng can inhibit the formation of these fibrils, then this highlights a potentially important caveat of ginseng in the treatment of diseases where amyloid plaques are an issue; such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes, atherosclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, amongst others.

With the motto of the modern human being work hard, play harder…then work even harder to catch up after playing too hard; it’s no wonder our bodies and minds get stressed and depressed. However, don’t fret…ginseng’s got your back. Fan et al., (3) have shown ginseng to elicit anti-stress and anti-depressant type effects in rats. In this study, rats were treated with a ginsenoside known as Rg1. Those rats that were treated with this ginsenoside displayed protection against the behavioural and biochemical changes in response to chronic stress whilst also displaying less depression-like behaviours.

There has been a lot of interesting ginseng research conducted to date, but what if ginseng as a therapeutic isn’t viable? What if it is too toxic and has too many side effects? Fortunately Chen and colleagues (4) are currently exploring this. In a recent clinical trial, either single or multiple doses of a ginsenoside known as Compound K (CK) were administered to healthy Chinese volunteers, in order to measure their safety and suitability as a drug. Although further studies have to be undertaken, the results were promising and CK administration was safe, well-tolerated by the body, and no severe adverse effects were observed.

Papers:

(1) Ying A., et al., (2018) Structural-activity relationship of ginsenosides from steamed ginseng in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Am J Chin Med. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X18500088.

(2) Kasi PB., et al., (2017) The inhibitory effect of Panax ginseng extract on amyloid-like fibril formation of trypsin in aqueous ethanol. Protein Pept Lett. doi: 10.2174/0929866525666171229231226.

(3) Fan C., et al., (2018) MiR-134 modulates chronic stress-induced structural plasticity and depression-like behaviours via downregulation of Limk1/cofilin signalling in rats. Neuropharmacology. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2018.01.009.

(4) Chen L., et al., (2018) Single- and multiple-dose trials to determine the pharmacokinetics, safety, tolerability, and sex effect of oral ginsenoside compound K in healthy Chinese volunteers. Front. Pharmacol., https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2017.00965