By Jimmy Downs

Saturday Sept 29, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking North American ginseng supplements may help patients with diabetic nephropathy, according to a study in Phytomedicine. This study is an animal model study and it is only a suggestion that using ginseng therapy may help people with diabetic kidney disease.

S. Sen at University of Western Ontario, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ontario, Canada and colleagues conducted the study and found ginseng therapy significantly improved dysmetabolic state in mice with diabetes.

Ginseng has been commonly used as an herbal medicine and dietary supplement in East Asia for thousands of years.  Although Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) and North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) are not exactly the same, but both possess antihyperglycermic properties and antioxidant properties.

For the study,  mice with either antibiotic-induced type 1 or type 2 diabetes were subject to alcoholic ginseng root exact in a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight through daily oral gavage and  control mice without diabetes were given a placebo for two or four months.

In the kidneys of diabetic mice, the ginseng exact significantly prevented oxidative stress and reduced the NF?B(p65) levels, according to the study report.  Also in the kidneys, the ginseng preparation significantly reduced diabetes-induced up-regulation of ECM protein and vasoactive factors.  In the diabetic mice receiving ginseng therapy, albuminuria and mesangial expansion were prevented.

The researchers concluded "North American ginseng has preventive effects on DN and it works through a combination of mechanisms such as antihyperglycemic and antioxidant activities."