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Review
. 2023 Jul;47(4):506-514.
doi: 10.1016/j.jgr.2023.03.001. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Panax Ginseng in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia

Zhiyong Wang  1 , Zhen Zhang  1 , Jiangang Liu  2 , Mingdong Guo  1 , Hao Li  3
Affiliations
Review

Panax Ginseng in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia

Zhiyong Wang et al. J Ginseng Res. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Dementia has become one of the most important diseases threatening human health. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) have the highest incidence rates among the types of dementia, but until now, therapeutic methods have been limited. Panax ginseng has been used in China for thousands of years to treat dementia, and modern medical studies have found that it contains multiple active components, such as ginsenosides, polysaccharides, amino acids, volatile oils and polyacetylenes, many of which have therapeutic effects in treating AD and VaD. Studies have found that ginsenosides have multitarget therapeutic effects in treating dementia, such as regulation of synaptic plasticity and the cholinergic system, inhibition of Aβ aggravation and tau hyperphosphorylation, anti-neuroinflammation, anti-oxidation effects and anti-apoptosis effects. Other active components of Panax ginseng, such as gintonin, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides and ginseng proteins, also have therapeutic effects on AD and VaD. The effectiveness of ginseng-containing Chinese medicine compounds has also been confirmed by clinical and basic investigations in treating AD and VaD. In this review, we summarized the potential therapeutic effects and related mechanisms of Panax ginseng in treating AD and VaD to provide some examples for further studies.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Chinese medicine; Ginsenosides; Panax ginseng; Vascular dementia.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

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Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chemical structure of compound K.
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