고려인삼의 방사선 방어효과에 대한 연구현황과 전망

Abstract

Pharmacological effects of Panax ginseng have been demonstrated in cardiovascular system, endocrine secretion and immune system, together with antitumor, anti-stress and anti-oxidant activities. Modern scientific data show protective effect of ginseng against bone marrow cell death, increased survival rate of experimental animals, recovery of hematopoietic injury, immunopotentiation, reduction of damaged intestinal epithelial cells, inhibition of mutagenesis and effective protection against testicular damages, caused by radiation exposure. And also, ginseng acts in indirect fashion to protect radical processes by inhibition of initiation of free radical processes and thus reduces the radiation damages. The research has made much progress, but still insufficient to fully uncover the action mechanism of ginseng components on the molecule level. This review provides the usefulness of natural product, showing no toxic effects, as an radioprotective agent. Furthermore, the further clinical trials on radioprotection of ginseng need to be highly done to clarify its scientific application. The effective components of ginseng has been known as ginsenosides. Considering that each of these ginsenosides has pharmacological effect, it seems likely that non-saponin components might have radioprotective effects superior to those of ginsenosides, suggesting its active ingredients to be non-saponin series. These results also show that the combined effects of saponin and non-saponin components play an important role in the radioprotective effects of ginseng.