Welcome to Natural Power of Ginseng...

Ginseng has been studied for its many health benefits, most of them affects human stamina and mental health...

Ginseng can help you live a full sense of well being while keeping your physical strength on in its fullest...

In this blog I dedicate to provide you with various aspects that cover Ginseng properties but not in complicated medical vocabularies, I try to provide the information in the most easy and comprehensible style...

Please enjoy your stay and explore... :)

Can Ginseng Kill Cancer ?

Ginseng has been used as medical remedies for centuries in Asia. China, Korea, and Japan are among Asian Countries that adore Ginseng for its ability to improve physical strength and mental wellness.

A group of researchers at SIUC led by Murphy conducted a research on American Ginseng to find possible properties that have effects on Cancer Cells. As you might already knew Ginseng has several varieties such as Asian Ginseng, Korean Ginseng, and American Ginseng. There are also not so famous Siberian Ginseng and Notoginseng.

Before she started the research, Murphy had read several studies by Korean Scientists looking at Asian Ginseng and Cancer. The Korean scientists found that Asian ginseng inhibits cancer cell proliferation in a variety of cancers, such as lung cancer, melanoma, and colon cancer. They already found the component that was responsible for this. But this component is not found in American Ginseng.

So, Murphy team focused on studying American Ginseng. Previously Murphy and her team tested the Ginseng on female rats for its possible toxicological effects if consumed in high doses and the result seemed very safe.

They then started to injected female mice with human breast cancer cells. Some of the mice had been drinking regular water for the previous two weeks while the rest had been drinking water with 1 percent ginseng extract. (The human equivalent would be 2-3 grams of ginseng per day.) This procedure was continued after the mice were injected with the cells.

After two weeks, tumors began to form on both groups of mice, it seemed that there is no difference between the group that's been treated with ginseng and the group that was drinking regular water.

But after five weeks, when the tumors are big enough to start growing their own blood supply, ginseng has an effect. At the end of the experiment, the tumors in the treated mice were 50 percent smaller than those in the untreated mice. That's quite amazing....

The test showed that ginseng could possibly have an anti angiogenesis action. Angiogenesis is tumor's ability to generate new blood vessels from the existing ones. If you imagine Cancer Cells are like rebellious army that try to destroy your body, then it's a good news if Ginseng can help reduce or even prevent your enemies' ability to expand their food supply.

The actions list of Ginseng doesn't stop there, According to the Chinese Medicine Journal’s report, the anti-tumour effects of ginsenosides include its ability to induce cell death (such as apoptosis and necrosis), and having effects of anti-proliferation, anti-invasion and metastasis, and anti-angiogenesis.

I have already explained the anti-angiogenesis action, now let's see the other actions:

Inducing cell death

Several compounds found in ginsenosides have been shown to induce apoptosis in prostate cancer cells, ovarian cancer cells, neuroblastoma cells and lung adenocarcinoma cells. The induction of tumour cell death by ginsenosides may be one of the mechanisms in the elimination of tumour cells.


Anti-proliferation

Ginsenosides also have preventative effects by inhibiting the cell cycle progression. They have been shown to arrest the growth of human tumour cell lines in lung tumour cells, prostate carcinoma cells, leukuemia cells, and hepatoma (liver cancer) cells.


Anti-invasion and anti-metastasis

Cancer metastasis is a complex process involving angiogenesis and cell-cell interactions. What is metastasis anyway ? Well it's the ability of cancer cells to spread from their primary site to other places in the body. Cancer cells can break away from a primary tumour, penetrate into lymphatic and blood vessels, circulate through the bloodstream, and grow in a distant focus (metastasize) in normal tissues elsewhere in the body.

Scientists recently demonstrated that the invasiveness of some endometrial cancer cells (including those of the uterus) was inhibited by treating them with a certain types of ginsenosides.

The anti-invasive effects of several ginsenosides include the abilities to significantly inhibit in vitro invasion of hepatoma cells, melanoma cells, human lung carcinoma and pancreatic cancer cells. Ginsensodies have also been shown to inhibit lung metastasis, reduce the weight of tumours in lung, breast, gastric and melanoma cancers.

So, my conclusion is Ginseng is very beneficial for health not just for boosting physical strength or your mental wellness, it's also a good alternative therapy for cancer patients. However I still suggest you to consult your Doctor before taking action. You can give him a copy of this article or from the articles that serve as my references below.


References:
http://www.siu.edu/~perspect/01_sp/ginseng.html
http://chinesemedicinenews.com/2007/06/21/the-anatomy-of-ginseng-and-its-anti-cancer-abilities/
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/UnderstandingCancer/angiogenesis


Images sources:
http://www.cancer.gov
http://images.asia.ru/img/alibaba/photo/50290362/American_Ginseng_Extract.jpg