Based on the fact that ginsenosides are extracted from ginseng species, it is often questioned that whether ginsenosides can be obtained by directly taking Panax ginseng or American ginseng to achieve anticancer effects. There are two points to be noted for this question.
Firstly, the administration of raw ginseng herbs can obtain prototype ginsenosides but the prototype ginsenosides contents in raw ginseng species are so low that anticancer efficacy can be hardly achieved. Noticeably, the overdose of raw ginseng can bring some side effects like suffering from the excessive internal heat.
Secondly, taking raw ginseng cannot obtain rare ginsenosides which are metabolites of prototype ginsenosides and whose anticancer activities outperform prototype ginsenosides. The transformation of rare ginsenosides from raw ginseng materials involves complex preparation technologies.
Advanced preparation technologies make it possible to extract the active ingredients from tons of raw materials and process them to reach therapeutic concentrations. Eating raw ginseng directly suffers in low concentrations, thus leading to poor anticancer efficacy.