BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS VoL. 26, No. 9-10 
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1978 
THE CORRECT NAME FOR SIBERIAN GINSENG 
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DJAJA D. SOEJARTO!,2 AND NORMAN R. FARNSWORTH! 
‘*Siberian Ginseng’’ is a vernacular name associated with an 
araliaceous plant and its product, which is now imported 
primarily from the Soviet Union and marketed in health food 
stores here in the U.S.A., Europe and elsewhere. The product 
is prepared from the roots of Eleutherococcus senticosus 
(Rupr. & Maxim.) Maxim., which is commonly referred to as 
‘‘Devil’s Shrub’’, ‘‘Touch-me-not’’, ‘‘Prickly Eleuthero- 
coce’’, ‘‘Eleutherococc’’, and ‘‘Siberian Ginseng”. This 
species grows in Eastern Siberia, Sakhalin Island, Japan, 
South Korea, Manchuria, and the Chinese Provinces of Shansi 
and Hopei. A taxonomic description of E. senticosus is pro- 
vided by Poyarkova (1973). 
It is interesting to note that E. senticosus is not mentioned to 
any extent in the early Oriental medical writings as having 
useful properties. However, extracts of the roots of E. sentico- 
sus have been studied extensively in the Soviet Union for about 
25 years: more than 200 scientific periodicals can be found onin 
vitro, in vivo, and in situ effects, as well as scores of papers 
reporting results of human studies. These studies have been 
pioneered by Brekhman (1969, 1970), Dardymov (1976) and 
their co-workers, and are continuing. The major effects attrib- 
uted to extracts of E. senticosus roots relate to an anti-stress 
phenomenon, called by Russian workers ‘‘an adaptogenic ef- 
fect’’, the mechanism for which remains unclear. 
Since this plant is an important item of commerce, and 
because a great deal of confusion seems to be apparent in the 
herb industry relative to the priority of the binomial Eleuthero- 
coccus senticosus over Acanthopanax senticosus (or vice 
' Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, University 
of Illinois at the Medical Center, 833 South Wood St., Chicago, Ill. 60612. 
2Research Associate, Field Museum of Natural History (Botany), Chicago; Honorary 
Research Fellow in Ethnomedicine, Botanical Museum of Harvard University. 
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