Korean ginseng is a medicinal plant and has been evaluated as the best medicinal herb in Korean traditional medicine books. The efficacy of Korean ginseng is being demonstrated continually through scientific studies. No other medicinal plant has been studied as much as Korean ginseng by both domestic and foreign researchers. Many domestic and foreign research papers and review articles have proven the efficacy of Korean ginseng. However, until now, most books on introducing the efficacy of Korean ginseng mainly are Korean and belong to the field of liberal arts and have assessed the sociological aspects of Korean ginseng (e.g., ancient Korean ginseng myths) rather than from a scientific perspective. In other words, there is no English guide- book from which general foreigners and foreign scientists can understand the efficacy of Korean ginseng based on the results of scientific research on why we should take ginseng to maintain health and prevent diseases. So, I was inspired to write this book in English.

The efficacy of Korean ginseng described in this book was mainly described based on the results of studies using animal and human cells, preclinical animal experiments, and recent domestic and foreign human clinical trials. First, I would like to inform you in advance that the efficacy of Korean ginseng derived from laboratory animals may not be directly applied to humans. In this book, most clinical trials using Korean (red) ginseng in humans are examples of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trials. To enhance the understanding of readers, the results of human clinical trials have been summarized in tables in each chapter. Although there are cases in which additional studies are required to further verify the results of clinical trials with human applications, I wanted to show, directly or indirectly, that taking ginseng contributes to maintaining human health and preventing diseases through these pieces of ginseng research.

Further, although this book describes the effects of Korean ginseng ingredients individually, most “ginseng components” are collectively referred to as “ginseng”. If you want to know more about the components of ginseng in detail, as well as its physiological and pharmacological actions, please refer to the attached references and the author’s ginseng gintonin blog (http:// m.blog.naver.com/synah1267). Most published research papers and review articles contain academic terminologies, which might make it difficult for general ginseng industry officials and consumers to understand. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to easily connect ginseng product sellers and consumers. In other words, I tried to reduce the amount of medical and scientific terminologies as much as possible and to inform the public about the effects of taking Korean (red) ginseng using a simple and common-sense approach. Difficult scientific terminologies have been further explained with annotations.

Also, concerning the effects of ginseng on the body, I have divided the effects by organ so that readers can select and read chapters pertaining to organs of interest. Although the position of each organ constituting the body remains independent, the functions of each organ are organically linked to each other. For example, when you are stressed, your blood pressure increases and you may experience indigestion. Ginseng has the same effect. When ginseng acts on the brain to reduce stress, your blood pressure drops and digestion improves. Therefore, although the content of this book is divided according to organ, you can think of the functions as being interconnected.

This book was written to be helpful to general foreigners, as well as those planning to research, cultivate, process, commercialize, or export ginseng. I hope that this book will serve as a guide if you have to explain the efficacy of Korean (red) ginseng to consumers or anyone else. Medicines manufactured through chemical synthesis have many side effects, and in recent years, demands for natural foods and natural pharmaceutical products (functional foods and pharmaceuticals) have increased world- wide. For example, penicillin, isolated from the green mold we know well; aspirin, an antipyretic analgesic extracted from willow trees; Taxol®, extracted and isolated from yew trees and used in the treatment of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer; and Tamiflu®, an antiviral agent derived from Illicium verum Hook. f.; and many other medicines were first discovered in natural products. Through persistent follow-up studies, they were developed and are widely used as medicines for the treatment of diseases.

As previously mentioned, ginseng contains various ingredi- ents and exerts various effects. This property is referred to as a multi-component multi-target characteristic of natural medicine. I hope that this book will serve as a basis for discovering and establishing a target for the treatment of diseases in the human body. To achieve this, further studies are needed to isolate useful ingredients other than the existing ginseng extract. I expect that the results of basic research using Korean ginseng ingredients will be further applied for translational research, in which ginseng ingredients can be used as candidates for the development of ginseng-derived natural medicines through human clinical trials.

I hope that this book will be helpful to general overseas readers, scholars and all who have a relationship with ginseng to know that Korean (red) ginseng is a sustainable health supplement. In addition, I want to play a pioneering role in developing and expanding various studies related to Korean ginseng into a new academic field called “ginsentology” so that Korean ginseng can become a key health promoter in the future.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to The Korean Society of Ginseng which helped me a lot during the publication of this book on Korean ginseng efficacy in English. I would also like to thank Ji-Hoon Kim, a graduate student who prepared the illustrations, and my wife and family who worked hard to enable me to write this book.

Nah Seung-Yeol

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