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With the progress of chemical researches in ginseng studies, efforts to elucidate the pharmacological actions of ginseng have been greatly increased. The majority of ginseng reaserches in the past has been performed with crude extracts from ginseng roots to verify scientifically the empirical application of ginseng in men and animals. Recently, ginseng reaserches have been done mostly with pure ginsenosides and there has been a shift in focus to the various biochemical pathways. It was demonstrated that ginseng had diverse effects by modulating the second-messenger system, such as cyclic nucleotides, calcium. The demonstration in 1987 of the formation of nitric oxide(NO, endothelium-derived relaxing factor) by an enzyme in vascular endothelial cells opened up a new area of biological reaserches of ginseng. It was shown that vascular relaxations induced by ginsenosides are mediated by release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells. According to the literature search from "Medline", there have been 737 original and review articles during the last 30 years. In this review articles, an attempt has been made to summarize some results from some of these published papers. Ginseng has a wide range of pharmacological and therapeutical actions. It acts on the central nervous system and cardiovascular system, promotes immune function and metabolism, possesses anti-stress, anti-cancer and anti-ageing activities, and so on.
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