That ?traditional name of ginseng is "Shim" The etymology and date are not known, but "Shim" was written in many medicinal books of the the 'Joseon Dynasty,' and it is still used among pickers of wild ginseng.
Korean ginseng seems to be named after its physical resemblance of people in far-east asia. ?The Chinese character gin means men, and seng represents the genus name Panax.
There are six to seven species in plants in the genus Panax, but only three of them are cultivated economically and distributed as a product in the world. Panax ginseng C.a. Meyer, the Korea ginseng species, is cultivated and distributed in Far Eastern asia, including Korea and China. Panax quinquefolium L., an america ginseng, is cultivated in america and Canada. Panax notoginseng(Burk) F.H. Chen (Sanchi), is produced in Southern China, geographically. Korean ginseng is different from the species of american ginseng and Sanchi. In general, the Korean ginseng is called ginseng with use of the letter 'gin',and only refers to Panax ginseng C.a. Meyer.
1. Saponin
The first thing that comes into mind when thinking about Korea Insam is saponin. Korea Insam has the richest variety of saponin. Its composition is so exquisite that no other plants in the Panax family come close to it. So far, some thirty different kinds of saponin, named ginsenosides, have been identified. These ginsenosides are further divided into diols, triols and oleananes according to their structural characteristics, and are known to have different medical effects. The content of saponin in ginsengs grown in other countries is higher than Korea Insam, but their saponins are limited to about 4 to 15 kinds, resulting in very limited medicinal effects when compared to Korea Insam. Unique to white ginseng are saponins of malonyl-ginsenosides, e.g. MG-Rb1, MG-Rb2, MG-Rc and MG-Rd. Red ginseng specifically contains such saponins as G-Rh2, G-Rs1, G-Rs2 and H-R4. 2. Polyacetylene compounds
More than 10 different polyacetylene compounds have been identified in Korea Insam. Some of these are known to suppress replication of cancerous cells and exhibit antiplatelet and antioxidation activity. Analysis of polyacetylene ingredient contained in ginsengs from various countries revealed that Korea Insam exceeds in its content by approximately 30-60%. 3. Polypenol compounds
There are many polyphenol compounds in Korea Insam that suppress lipid hyperoxidation and help slow the aging process. 4. Acidic polysaccharides
It has been reported that Polysaccharides containing biophylaxis proteins and polysaccharides of anticomplementary activity were identified in Korea Insam. Acidic polysaccharides have been identified to restrain the activity of toxohormone-L, a lipolysis prompting toxin, and to reinforce immunological functions. Comparison of acidic polysaccharide contents reveals that Korea Insam is far superior to western or Chinese Sanchi ginseng.
( unit: O.D. at 525 mm ) Korea Insam 0.30
american ginseng (Hwagi-sam) 0.20
Chinese ginseng (Sanchi-sam) 0.21
[table : Comparison of acidic polysaccharide content in ginseng from various countries] 5. General Ingredients
Among all types of ginseng grown in the world, Korea Insam has the heighest concentration of general ingredients (e.g. protein, crude fiber, and sugar). This is also true for amino acids, specifically threonine, glutamic acid, proline, glycine, alanine, cycstine and lysine. Moreover, the amount of adenosine, a nucleic aci, found in Korea Insam is higher than the amount found in ginseng from other countries.
The contents of general ingredients, e.g., protein, crude fiber and sugar, in Korea Insam are higher than those in ginsengs of foreign sources. Moreover, the contents of adenosine, one of nucleic acids, and total amino acids, especially of threonine, glutamic acid, proline, glycine, alanine, cystine and lysine, in Korea Insam are higher than those in ginsengs of other countries.
1. Korea Insam is the most important invigorating medicine that is primarily used to restore energy (or gi).
Gi" (energy) is hard to be described in western medical terms, yet can be conveniently translated as physiological conditioning functions of various organs of human body, or vital energy of life. Gi-infirmity denotes a condition in which such physiological function is retarded.
2. Korea Insam does not normally raise body temperature.
Korea Insam (ingredients) is not a pyrogenetic material (pyrogen). No change in body temperature is observed from regular doses (50-100 mg/kg), but rather a drop in body temperature is observed from large doses (200 mg/kg) (reported by Prof. Bhargava of Illinois University, Chicago, U.S.a. in 1990).
3. Korea Insam improves thermophile condition disorders.
Professors Fujimoto and Oita of Medical College, Kyushu University, Japan, empirically proved that a Korea Insam ingredient (G-Rg1) functions as a buffer against thermophile disorders.
* When a test animal is exposed to thermophile conditions, both food ingestion and weight decrease. Water intake increases while physical activity level drops. These phenomena are similar to those of patients suffering from heatstroke.
* administration of Korea Insam (ingredients) is said to show effectiveness in maintaining normal body temperature and to work as a buffer against thermophile disorders for the test animals.
* This empirical results fairly support the efficacy of ginseng-chicken broth, a popular traditional Korean food favored by people especially in summer to recover from poor appetite and restore vitality.
4. The mild medicinal property of Korea Insam is related to the effect of blood circulation improvement.
Both Oriental and Western medicines accept the invigorating property as the primary efficacy of ginseng.
* Invigorating property is usually understood to promote blood circulation and thus facilitate metabolism by warming up the body, and not the other way around, to subsequently maintain the homeostasis of human body. The mild medicinal property of Korea Insam is believed to promote blood circulation, which in turn facilitates the supply of oxygen and nutrients to tissues of various organs, and to keep the body in optimally warm state. Korea Insam (Panax ginseng C.a. Meyer) is the only ginseng among ginseng species, which EU countries, including Germany, have officially acknowledged and listed as a tonic in their pharmacopoeia. No american ginseng or Chinese Sanchi ginseng has been acknowledged as such.
5. Korea Insam normalizes physical functions.
Physical control systems are broadly divided into
*nervous system, * endocrine system and * immune system, which are closely interrelated. If the homeostasis of these three control systems is harassed, a physical function disorder occurs, which leads to a disease if it becomes serious. an abundance of studies on Korea Insam have found that it has a positive effect on physical control systems.
Earlier, world-reputed Russian pharmacologist brekhmann (1969) asserted so-called "adaptogen theory", which claims that ginseng normalizes abnormal physical conditions in a nonspecific way when the body is confronted with various harmful influences from outside.
* The theory has since been endorsed by many empirical and clinical studies on Korea Insam. Specifically, Korea Insam is said to generate greater effects when a distorted influence is applied to an organism under unphysiological conditions rather than under normal conditions. More info about Korea Insam can be found at http://www.insam.or.kr/eng/
