Saturday Nov 9, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking Korean red ginseng supplements may help weight loss in obese people or prevent obesity in people with healthy body weight, a study in Journal of Ginseng Research suggests.

M. R. Lee from Daedeok Bio Corporation Research and Development center in Daejeon, Korea and colleagues conducted the study and found black ginseng ethanol extract reduced hyperlipidemia, fat accumulated on the liver and white adipose tissue induced by a high fat diet.  Black ginseng is simply a type of Korean red ginseng prepared in a special way.

For the study, mice were fed either a high fat diet supplemented with 1%, 3% or 5% black ginseng ethanol extract or a normal diet as control for 12 weeks.  The high fat diet had 45% calories provided by fat.  Body weight, fat mass, and lipid mechanisms were assessed in obese mice.

It is not surprising that the high fat diet induced high cholesterol or hyperlipidemia, fat accumulation in the liver, and white adipose tissues and as a result, mice on the high fat diet become obese.  But black ginseng ethanol extract reduced all these negative effects of the high fat diet.

The researchers also observed that the ginseng extract increased total fecal weight and fecal fat excretion suggesting that the ginseng extract reduced the efficacy of fat digestion.

Another study released in March 2013 in Food Chemistry and Toxicology also suggests that Korean red ginseng (Panax ginseng) prevents obesity in mice fed a high fat diet.

H. Lee and colleagues from Department of Life Sciences, Mokwon University in Daejeon, Republic of Korea conducted the study and found Korean red ginseng able to inhibit angiogenesis and matrix metalloproteinase activity, which is needed for adipose tissue growth and obesity.

For the study, wild type of mice (not genetically modified) were fed with either a low fat diet, or a high fat diet or high fat diet supplemented with 0.5% or 5% Korean red ginseng extract for eight weeks.

Again, the high fat diet caused obesity in mice and Korean red ginseng supplementation reduced body weight and adipose tissue mass.  

The study also found evidence suggesting that Korean red ginseng effectively reduced adipose tissue mass and prevented obesity in high fat diet fed mice by inhibiting angiogenesis.

In addition to preventing obesity, Korean red ginseng may also be able to help prevent cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus and help treat erectile dysfunction and fatigue, according to other studies. (David Liu, Ph.D.)