Pharmaceutical Applications
Ginseng is a group of plants of genus Panax which belongs to the Araliaceae family. P. quinquefolius or American ginseng or ginseng herb is a perennial herb, native to Northeastern America. The herb has been used as alternative medicine since ancient times, and its documented records in Native American medicine date back to over 5000 years. It is one of the most widely used traditional Chinese herbal medicines. P. ginseng or Asian ginseng is another important plant of the group. Ginseng root is an elixir and considered a wonder drug due to its innumerable health benefits and a promoter of well-being. The major constituents in ginseng are triterpenoid saponins, acetylenic compounds, and sesquiterpenes. The herb root is anti-inflammatory, sedative, cardiotonic, hepatoprotective and helps in digestion (Jiao et al. 2016). It has remarkable ability to help the body relieve of mental and emotional stress, fatigue, insomnia, heat, cold, and even hunger. This powerful herb also stimulates the nervous system and secretion of hormones, improves stamina, and lowers blood glucose and cholesterol levels (Bing et al. 2016).
Ginseng and its ginsenosides have been observed to play a modulating role in many stages of angiogenesis, an important factor in progression of cancer. American ginseng has anticancer properties and has shown good effects in treating colorectal cancer (Yu et al. 2013). Reduced production of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6 was observed after ginseng treatment in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated rat microglia cultures (Dai et al. 2017). In an angiogenesis model for gastric cancer, treatment of endothelial cells with Korean red ginseng extract in vitro resulted in significantly lower expression levels of inflammatory mediators like iNOS, COX-2, IL-8 and IL-1β, angiogenic factors like IL-6, VEGF, platelet-derived growth factor, and MMPs, with decrease in endothelial cell tube formation and cell proliferation (Choi et al. 2012). Ginseng has the potential to modulate the angiogenesis at the transcriptional, translational, and protein-signaling level via various different mechanisms of action; therefore it is surely more effective than products which target only a single mechanism.
The ginseng polysaccharide (GPS) is tested for its anticancer activity on human nasopharyngeal cancer cells (CNE-2) by Fan et al. (2013). GPS has shown remarkable inhibition in proliferation of CNE-2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. It promotes apoptosis via decreasing expression of beta-catenin and Bcl-2, at the same time increasing expression of Bax, an apoptosis-promoting protein. In a recent study on effect of protopanaxadiol (PPD), a product of P. ginseng on cytotoxicity in human laryngeal carcinoma cell lines, significant inhibition on cell proliferation and induced apoptosis was observed. Activation of caspase-3 and Bax and reduced expression of Bcl-2 were indicative of PPD-induced apoptosis. The anticancer effect of PPD ginsenoside is attributed to downregulation of m-TOR-signaling pathway in laryngeal carcinoma cell lines (Teng et al. 2017).
