Panax Ginseng: the classic energy root

Panax ginseng is a slow growing perennial plant in the ivy family, Araliaceae. You will also see it sold as Korean ginseng, Asian ginseng or Chinese ginseng, and labelled red or white ginseng depending on how the root was treated after harvest. The part people use is the root.

Above ground the plant is modest. It grows to roughly 30 to 60 cm, with a ring of hand shaped leaves, each split into three to five finely toothed leaflets. In summer a single stalk carries a small round cluster of flowers that ripen into bright red berries. Below ground sits the pale, forked taproot the plant is known for. That root can take up to six years to reach full size, and growers usually lift it at five or six years old.

Wild Panax ginseng comes from the mountain forests of Korea, north east China and the Russian Far East. It was collected so heavily that it is now a protected plant in both Russia and China, so nearly everything on sale is cultivated. Korea and China grow most of it, with smaller crops in Japan and Russia.

The names carry some history. Panax shares its Greek root with panacea, meaning all healing. Ginseng comes from the Chinese rénshēn, usually translated as man root, because a well forked root can look like a small figure with arms and legs. In Korean it is insam, and in Japanese ninjin.

Ginseng has been one of the most valued plants in Korean and Chinese tradition for more than 2,000 years. Chinese legend credits the mythical emperor Shennong with sorting the medicinal herbs, and ginseng is listed as a superior herb in the Shennong Bencao Jing, a herbal text compiled roughly two thousand years ago. Superior herbs were the ones taken as general tonics for vitality and a long life, rather than for one named complaint.

Wild roots were valuable enough to be sent to emperors as tribute. In Korea the state controlled the red ginseng trade for long stretches of history, and Korean red ginseng is still the best known form worldwide.

Europe got its first detailed description from Pierre Jartoux, a French Jesuit working as a map maker in China. His letter about the plant is dated 12 April 1711. A missionary in Canada read it, went looking for a relative in the local forests and found American ginseng in 1716, which started a trade in North American roots to China that still runs today.

In modern Korea, fresh ginseng goes into cooking, most famously samgyetang, a chicken soup stuffed with rice and a whole root. Elsewhere it turns up in capsules, teas, tonics, sweets and energy drinks. It has also become one of the most studied herbs in the world, with hundreds of human trials, though as later sections show, the quality of that research varies a lot.

All of these are the same species. What differs is the age of the root and what happens to it after it leaves the ground.

• Fresh ginseng is the raw root, often under four years old, sold for cooking and juicing.
• White ginseng is usually four to six years old, peeled or trimmed and then dried in air or sun.
• Red ginseng is usually around six years old, steamed and then dried. Steaming turns it a glassy reddish brown and lets it keep for years.
• Black ginseng goes through the steaming and drying cycle several times, traditionally nine.
• Sun ginseng is a processed form heated to a higher temperature than standard red ginseng.

Heat changes the chemistry. Steaming converts some of the root's original ginsenosides into others that are scarce in the raw root, such as Rg3 and Rk1. So a trial of red ginseng cannot simply be read across to white ginseng, and the reverse is also true. Some producers ferment ginseng as well, which shifts the profile again.

Research extracts add another layer. Much of the older human work used G115, a standardised extract made by Pharmaton that contains 4% ginsenosides. The same company also produced NAGE, standardised to 10%. When a paper names one of these, you know roughly what was tested. When it only says ginseng, you often do not, and sometimes it is not even clear which species was used.

The compounds that get most of the attention are ginsenosides, a family of saponins found almost only in Panax plants. More than 100 have been identified. Chemists sort most of them into two groups: protopanaxadiols such as Rb1, Rc and Rd, and protopanaxatriols such as Rg1, Re and Rf. The balance between the two varies with the part of the plant, its age, where it grew and how it was processed.

One small detail is useful for spotting fakes. Ginsenoside Rf occurs in Panax ginseng but not in American ginseng, so laboratories use it as a marker to tell the two apart.

Ginsenosides are not the only active candidates. The root also contains polysaccharides, polyacetylenes, peptides and gintonin, a more recently described group. Most of what is known about how any of these act comes from cell and animal work. Linking that to people is hard, because ginsenosides are poorly absorbed and gut bacteria break many of them down into other compounds, such as compound K, before they reach the bloodstream.

For a buyer this has one practical consequence. Two products that both say Panax ginseng 500 mg can contain very different amounts of ginsenosides. Standardised extracts state a percentage, commonly somewhere between about 1.5% and 10%. Whole root powders usually give no figure at all.

The most careful work on ginseng and the mind came from Northumbria University in Newcastle, where researchers ran a series of small placebo controlled trials of G115 in healthy young adults.

• Kennedy, Scholey and Wesnes, 2001. Twenty volunteers each took single doses of 200, 400 and 600 mg of G115 and a placebo on separate days, a week apart. After 400 mg they scored higher than after placebo on a combined memory quality measure at every test point over six hours. The 200 and 600 mg doses went the other way on one measure, with slower attention scores later in the day. More was not simply better. Read on PubMed
• Reay, Kennedy and Scholey, 2005. Thirty young adults took 200 mg, 400 mg or placebo, then worked through repeated rounds of demanding mental arithmetic. Both doses lowered blood glucose. On 200 mg, participants did better on the hardest subtraction task and rated themselves as less mentally tired across most of the session. Read on PubMed

These were single doses given to healthy students, and they were short, well controlled and small. The bigger picture is less clear. A 2010 Cochrane review found nine trials of ginseng for cognition, but only five had usable data, and the outcomes, doses and lengths were too different to combine. The authors concluded there was no convincing evidence that Panax ginseng enhances thinking in healthy people, and no high quality evidence in dementia. Read the review on PubMed

On tiredness, a 2013 South Korean trial gave 90 adults with long term unexplained fatigue (21 men and 69 women) either 1 g or 2 g a day of a ginseng extract, or a placebo, for four weeks. Total fatigue scores were not significantly different from placebo. The mental fatigue part of the scale was lower in the ginseng groups, and on 2 g a separate fatigue rating was lower too. Read on PubMed

Ginseng has been trialled for a long list of things. Here is what the better studies found, with their limits.

Blood sugar. A 2014 meta-analysis pooled 16 trials in people with and without diabetes. Fasting blood glucose was 0.31 mmol/L lower with ginseng than with control, a small change. There was no significant effect on fasting insulin, HbA1c or insulin resistance overall. Most trials lasted under 12 weeks and involved people whose blood sugar was already fairly well managed. Read on PubMed

Cholesterol. Reviews disagree. Some find lower total and LDL cholesterol, particularly at 2 g a day or more; others find no overall change in cholesterol, triglycerides or HDL.

Menopause. In a 2012 Korean trial, 72 women aged 45 to 60 took 3 g of red ginseng a day (containing 60 mg of ginsenosides) or placebo for 12 weeks. The ginseng group had lower scores on two menopause symptom scales and lower total and LDL cholesterol, with no change in oestradiol. Read on PubMed Other trials found no fall in the number of hot flushes.

Immunity and colds. A 1996 Italian trial gave 227 adults 100 mg of G115 or placebo for 12 weeks, with a flu vaccine at week four. The ginseng group reported 15 cases of flu or colds against 42 on placebo, and had higher antibody levels. Read on PubMed It has never been repeated at scale. A later review of ginseng for preventing colds found five usable trials, and all of them tested American ginseng rather than Panax ginseng. Read on PubMed

Inflammation markers. Some reviews report lower IL-6 and TNF-alpha, with mixed results for CRP and concerns about study bias.

After decades of research, ginseng is well studied and still poorly proven. This is how the picture sorts out.

What the evidence does show

• Single doses of a standardised extract changed scores on memory, arithmetic and mental fatigue tests in small crossover trials of healthy young adults on the day they took it.
• Across 16 trials, fasting blood glucose was slightly lower with ginseng than with control.
• At usual doses over weeks or a few months, most people in trials tolerated it well, with sleep problems the most common complaint.

What it does not show

• That taking ginseng for months makes healthy people think better. The Cochrane review found the evidence unconvincing.
• A settled dose. Trials range from 100 mg of extract to 3 g of root, across different forms.
• Long term safety beyond about six months.
• Anything about combination products such as gummies. Studies test ginseng alone.

There are good reasons results scatter. Most trials are small and short. Many use different species, plant parts and processing, and some papers do not say which ginseng they used. A good number were run or funded by extract makers, and most come from Korea and China, where positive results are published more often than negative ones.

There is no official recommended intake in the UK. The best guide is what trials used, and those amounts depend on the form.

• Standardised extract: 200 to 400 mg a day is typical, with 400 mg the dose linked to the clearest memory results. These extracts usually hold 4 to 10% ginsenosides.
• Dried root or root powder: roughly 0.5 to 2 g a day in traditional use and trials. The fatigue trial above used 1 g and 2 g of extract.
• Red ginseng: 3 g a day, often split into three 1 g doses, in the menopause and erectile function trials.

Most people take ginseng in the morning or early afternoon, because trouble sleeping is the side effect reported most often. Taking it with food can make stomach upset less likely.

How long to take it is less settled. Most trials ran for 4 to 12 weeks, and safety data covers little beyond six months. Some herbalists suggest a few weeks on followed by a short break, a practice that comes from tradition and has not really been tested.

Whatever you choose, follow the label and do not stack several ginseng products. With StarShroooms the routine is two gummies with breakfast.

Panax ginseng is generally well tolerated below about 3 g a day for short periods. The side effects reported most often are:

• trouble sleeping
• headache
• nausea, diarrhoea or stomach discomfort
• changes in blood pressure
• breast tenderness or vaginal bleeding
• skin rash

Allergic reactions and liver problems have been reported but are rare. A 1979 paper in JAMA described a ginseng abuse syndrome in long term, high dose users, with nervousness, raised blood pressure, poor sleep and skin eruptions. Read on PubMed It had no control group, many of the people also took caffeine, and later reviewers rate it as weak evidence. It is still a reason not to take large amounts for long periods.

Speak to your GP or pharmacist before taking ginseng if you:

• are pregnant or trying to conceive. In laboratory work on rat embryos, the ginsenoside Rb1 disrupted normal development, so avoidance is advised, especially early in pregnancy
• are breastfeeding, as there is no safety data
• take warfarin or another blood thinner, since ginseng has been reported to change how these work
• take insulin or tablets for diabetes, because blood sugar could drop further than expected
• take an MAOI antidepressant such as phenelzine, or selegiline, with reports of manic symptoms, headache and tremor
• have high or low blood pressure, a heart rhythm problem or a long QT interval
• have an autoimmune condition or take immunosuppressants
• take imatinib, raltegravir or furosemide, where interactions have been reported
• have surgery coming up. Many clinicians ask people to stop herbal supplements about two weeks beforehand

Ginseng is not advised for children. It can also affect how the body handles drugs broken down by the liver enzyme CYP3A4, and combining it with caffeine or stimulants may raise heart rate. If you think a herbal product has caused a side effect, you can report it on the MHRA Yellow Card website.

In the UK, Panax ginseng is sold in two legal forms. Most products are food supplements, which are regulated as food and cannot claim to prevent, treat or cure anything. A smaller number are registered herbal medicines. These carry a Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) from the MHRA and a THR mark on the pack, and any use they state is based on long standing traditional use rather than proof from trials.

There are no authorised GB health claims for ginseng. Claims for botanicals have been on hold since the EU era, so a label that promises more energy or stronger immunity is going beyond the rules. The NHS does not recommend ginseng for any condition, and its general advice is to tell your GP or pharmacist about any herbal remedy you use.

You will find ginseng in health food chains, pharmacies, supermarkets, Korean and Chinese grocers and online, as well as in teas and drinks. Quality varies more than most people expect. Tests of shop products in several countries have found cheaper species swapped in, leaves and stems sold as root, fillers, and in some products sold for men, undeclared sildenafil.

Before you buy, check the label for:

• the Latin name, Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, and the words root or root extract
• the form, such as whole root powder, standardised extract or red ginseng, with a ginsenoside percentage where given
• the amount per daily serving
• a UK or EU business address and a batch number
• independent testing, and batch testing such as Informed Sport if you compete

Panax ginseng is not on the 2026 WADA prohibited list, though contamination is still a risk for tested athletes. Several other plants borrow the name, including Siberian ginseng, American ginseng, Indian ginseng (ashwagandha) and Brazilian ginseng (suma), and none of them is the same plant.

StarShroooms combine six functional mushroom extracts, Lion's Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps, Chaga, Maitake and Tremella, with full spectrum Panax ginseng root. Full spectrum means the extract keeps the wider range of compounds found in the root, rather than one isolated ginsenoside.

We put ginseng in the gummy for the daytime side of the formula, next to Cordyceps, because both have long been used traditionally as morning tonics and neither contains caffeine. The gummies are vegan, caffeine free and blackcurrant flavoured, and a 60 gummy pack is a month's supply at £24.99.

No one has run a clinical trial on our gummies, and the studies on this page tested Panax ginseng on its own, usually as G115 or red ginseng in set amounts. Check the pack for the amount per serving rather than assuming trial results carry over. Our research page lists the human studies for every ingredient, and the rest of our mushroom gummies are in one place if you want to compare.

The safety points above still apply. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking regular medicine or waiting for surgery, check with a pharmacist before starting.