Panax notoginseng is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine widely known to the public, and Panax notoginseng powder has also become one of the hot health products recently.
In advertising, Panax notoginseng or Panax notoginseng powder has various functions, such as promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, controlling blood pressure, enriching blood, protecting cardiovascular system, enhancing immunity, reducing blood lipid and blood sugar…
Many readers left messages asking:
Is there any reliable basis for these effects?
Is it worth trying?
Dr. Clove invited Dr. Yun Wuxin to tell everyone in detail about Panax notoginseng and Panax notoginseng powder.
First, let’s briefly talk about Mr. Yun’s point of view:
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The research on the efficacy of Panax notoginseng is still in progress, and there is no definite evidence to prove that Panax notoginseng has so many therapeutic effects.
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Panax notoginseng or Panax notoginseng powder is relatively safe, but it is not recommended as the main drug for treatment. Consumers should weigh whether to use it or not.
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Don’t use notoginseng and other drugs or health products to affect the regular treatment, resulting in poor control of chronic diseases, which does more harm than good.
Panax notoginseng is a plant of the genus Panax
Panax notoginseng is also called [Tian Qi]. Botanically, Panax notoginseng is relatively close to ginseng and American ginseng, belonging to the same family and genus, but different species.
The medicinal part is its root and stem. After the rhizome is dried, it is ground into powder to obtain Panax notoginseng powder.
Take it orally or externally.
Study on the Efficacy of Panax notoginseng
Because of the fame of Panax notoginseng in traditional Chinese medicine, many scientific research teams have studied its active ingredients.
The characteristic component of Panax notoginseng is saponin. In addition, polysaccharides and flavonoids contained in it are also the components that have been studied more.
Although these [effective components] have been identified and separated, the current results are far from enough as scientific evidence for their [miraculous] effects.
On the one hand, these ingredients are not unique to Panax notoginseng, and other plants can more or less separate and extract some [active ingredients] such as saponins, polysaccharides and flavonoids.
On the other hand, The vast majority of experiments use the isolated [active ingredient] to treat cells or conduct animal experiments. And then observe their effects on cell growth, Or explore the mechanism of action in animals. These studies can only theoretically suggest that certain components may be related to physiological processes such as immune system or cardiovascular system, but it is far from enough to use them to prove that [Panax notoginseng has certain functions on human body]. As in marketing, it is not rigorous and appropriate to directly say [has such and such effects].
In cell experiments and animal experiments, the standard of whether or not to [work] is to detect changes in some indexes. However, the conclusion of whether such changes exist in human body, whether they are of practical significance and what dosage they are used must be further clinical trials in human body.
The evidence is mainly [theoretically possible]
What you eat into your stomach cannot be taken for granted. People attach so much importance to food safety, health care products and medicines that they cannot be careless.
Therefore, these studies are very necessary for people to understand Panax notoginseng, but since they have been studied, they must be rigorous and thorough in science. In the publicity, under the banner of scientific research, they tell the public unscientific conclusions and show imprecise experiments. This is actually a kind of deception.
Let’s look at the evidence so far.
In 2013, some Chinese scholars published a literature review in < Evidence-based Supplementary and Alternative Medicine > >, summarizing the clinical trials on the effects of oral Panax notoginseng on cardiovascular health that could be found at that time.
They found a total of 17 studies with a total number of 1,747 people. Based on these studies, the conclusion can be drawn as follows:
Oral administration of Panax notoginseng may be helpful to relieve angina pectoris-related symptoms, but it is not helpful to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.
At the same time, the author also points out:
Due to the small sample size and the fact that the study is not a double-blind controlled trial, these limitations affect the reliability of the appeal conclusion.
To put it bluntly, it is:
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In these experiments, oral administration of Panax notoginseng did not reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, but showed some [alleviating effect] on symptoms such as angina pectoris.
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The design of these tests is not rigorous enough and the number of participants is not large enough, so the credibility is limited.
As for other effects, clinical trial evidence is even less.
Is Panax notoginseng health care product worth trying?
Anyway, it is a natural plant. Ancestors have used it for thousands of years. It doesn’t matter without “sufficient scientific evidence”. What if it works?
Many people think so, and businesses have grasped this mentality to lobby.
Indeed, Panax notoginseng has a long history of use, and there are only some minor side effects in the research reported in the literature. No serious toxic and side effects recorded have been found.
In other words, if you just want to eat, you will basically not have what’s big problem.
However, it should be emphasized that for mild and chronic toxic and side effects, [long history of use] are often difficult to find.
In addition, the use of natural products by human beings should be weighed between [real usefulness] and [possible harm] to decide whether to adopt them.
Those effects of Panax notoginseng are [unproven] benefits. It is not cost-effective to take [unclear] risks for such [if useful] benefits.
If blind belief, in turn, affects the use of drugs with [definite curative effect], such as replacing regular antihypertensive and hypoglycemic drugs with Panax notoginseng powder, thus delaying the control of chronic diseases, it will do more harm than good.
Having said all this, do you know?