Abstract

Red ginseng is a medicinal herb widely used in East-Asia for a long time. Recently there have been a lot of studies about the effect of red ginseng on the immune responses. We investigated the differences between Korean red ginseng and Chinese red ginseng in the lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine production. The rats were divided into 3 groups, KRG(Korean Red Ginseng) group, CRG(Chinese Red Ginseng) group, and the Control group. Experimental groups were administered with Korean and Chinese red ginsengs for three months respectively. Then we obtained the lymphatic cells from spleen and compared the ability of KRG on the lymphocyte proliferation and the cytokine production after mitogen-stimulated culture to CRG. The proliferation of lymphocyte and level of <TEX>$IL-1{\alpha}$</TEX> were significantly increased only in KRG group. There were significant increases in the level of <TEX>$INF-{\gamma}$</TEX> in both KRG and CRG groups. There were no significant differences in the level of IL-2 and <TEX>$TNF-{\alpha}$</TEX>. These results indicate that KRG can induce infection-relevant immune responses much faster and higher than CRG. Furthermore, functional activation of CD8+ T-cell may be activated by red ginsengs.

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