American Ginseng and Cancer

Ginseng is widely used in the Asian countries like China, Japan, and Korea etc. for keeping the body and mind healthy and strong. There are many varieties in Ginseng namely, Korean ginseng, Asian ginseng and American Ginseng. American Ginseng is also called the cooling ginseng as it cools the body and relieves the person of stress and fatigue. It was also found to be helpful in curing diseases like cancer. Many researchers conducted research on American Ginseng to find out how its properties affect the cancer cells.

What are the effects of American ginseng? It is said that ginseng affects the central nervous system, metabolism, cardiovascular system, immunity systems and also works as an anti-stress and anti-ageing component. Many researchers have even talked about its usefulness in cancer therapy. Studies showed that the medicinal effects of American ginseng is due to the presence of its bioactive substances like peptides, fatty acids, polyactetylenes, saponins, ginsenosides and vitamins and minerals.

The question now is how do these components combat cancer? Researchers found that the ginsenoside component of ginseng has the ability to induce cell death and also has effects such as anti-angiogenesis, anti-invasion, anti-proliferation etc. Induction of tumor cell death by the component ginsenosides is one way to eliminate tumor.

Ginsenosides also possess preventive effects by preventing the cell growth. They are said to arrest the growth of the tumorous cells in hepatoma or liver cancer cells, leukemia, prostate cancer cells and lung tumor cells. Many studies were done to show that people who consumed ginseng extracts regularly had low risk of developing cancer. Studies conducted by the Chinese also showed that women who were diagnosed for breast cancer and consumed ginseng had a better quality of life compared to those who did not consume ginseng. It improved the effectiveness of cancer treatments like chemotherapy and also reduced cancer related fatigue.

A clinical trial led by the Mayo clinic showed that when cancer patients consumed American ginseng, they did not suffer from cancer related fatigue. The resulted of a test conducted on 340 patients undergoing breast cancer treatment were presented at the annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology. These patients were treated in 40 different medical centers and were give 2000 milligrams of American ginseng root in the form of a capsule. After a period of 8 weeks it was found that there was a 20 point improvement in the fatigue in the cancer patients when measured on a scale of 100. But it was also made clear by the Mayo clinic that this definitely does not mean that all patients suffering from cancer should not consume American Ginseng based on this report especially the commercial products as they may be produced using ethanol which would be very dangerous to the cancer patients.