Abstract
Black ginseng has various pharmacological activities, but only few studies have compared its pharmacological effects with those of red ginseng. We conducted an integrative systematic literature evaluation and developed a non-inferiority test based on the multivariate modeling approach to compare the pharmacological effects of red ginseng and black ginseng. We searched reported studies on the pharmaceutical effects and composition of ginsenosides and assigned numeric scores using nonlinear principal component analysis, based on discretization measures for the included publications. Downstream weighted linear regression models were constructed to study the eight major biological activities that are generally known to be exhibited by red ginseng. Our statistical model, based on available ordinal information gathered from previous literature, helped in comparing the overlapping effects of black ginseng. Black ginseng showed antioxidant effects comparable to those of red ginseng; however, this variant was inferior to red ginseng in enhancing immunity, relieving fatigue, alleviating depression/anxiety, decreasing body fat, and reducing blood pressure. We have showed a cost-efficient method to indirectly evaluate the biological effects of ginseng products using data from published articles. This method can also be used to compare the nutritional and medicinal value of herbal medicines that share similar compositions of bioactive compounds.
Highlights
Panax ginseng species are one of the most important herbal medicines in Asian countries
The most commonly reported benefits of ginseng extracts and ginsenosides were immunity-enhancing and antioxidant effects, followed by effects related to memory enhancement, decrease in blood pressure, and decrease in body fat
Many articles reported that red ginseng had blood-flow enhancing and antioxidant effects, while white ginseng was mostly reported to enhance memory and decrease blood pressure
Summary
Panax ginseng species are one of the most important herbal medicines in Asian countries. The health benefits and safety of this herbal medicine have been reported in vitro and in vivo, as well as in various clinical trials [2]. The positive effects of Panax ginseng combined with anticancer drugs are widely reported in several in vitro and in vivo studies, indicating its role as a potential. Nutrients 2020, 12, 2590 complementary treatment in patients with cancer [7]. Based on those unveiled pharmacological effects, more studies are in progress to better understand the impact of ginseng in medicine, including the specific roles of different ginseng variants
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