People risk in an increasingly higher possibility of getting cancer as the risk factors for cancer are increasing in modern society. Cancer can be caused by carcinogen contained in fried food or smoking. In addition to that, cancer can be developed from a tumor if the tumor turns to be a malignant one. Tumor cells won’t pose a great threat to the human body when they begin to grow at an early stage, at which it is usually called a benign tumor. The benign tumor cells are not cancerous and can be removed by surgery with a higher rate of recovery and a lower rate of recurrence. Tumor cells go pre-cancerous when they turn to be pre-malignant. Once tumor cells grow and divide to form an unbelievably larger lump, they begin to threaten the normal function of the human body with the symptom of painful feelings. Tumor turns to be malignant and also cancerous when tumor cells divide rapidly and spread other parts of the body by infecting adjacent healthy tissues. Tumor cells continue to grow and divide uncontrollably at the new spot and gradually form a new lump. Eventually, the tumor successfully metabolized. The tumor is able to make new blood vessels to feed themselves, which extends its lifespan to an unlimited period.
Rare ginsenosides are found to have great potentials for inhibiting tumor cell activities. Research reveals that rare ginsenosides are able to inhibit the ability of tumor cells to build new blood vessels, which prohibits tumor cells from invading other parts of the body in an uncontrollable and rapid way. The capability of angiogenesis can be one of the most power that enables tumor cells to maintain a strong life and invade unscrupulously. Once tumor cells are inhibited in their ability to make their own networks of blood vessels, they lose one of the most powerful access to nutrients and accordingly are less capable of injecting and even invading adjacent healthy tissues, which lowers the possibility of metastasis. With being less able to obtain nutritional support by networking blood vessels itself, tumor cells are more likely to suffer an inhibitory effect on proliferation. All of these activities make it less possible for the tumor to grow and even develop into cancer at a rapid speed.
Rare ginsenosides are found to have great properties in anti-cancer activity in the base of extensive research by scientists from all over the world. Noticeable achievements in this field have been made by Japan, Korea, Canada. They are discovered to be of high potentials for pharmaceutical application even though they are currently not applied for this purpose on a large scale.
Many scientists have been working hard on the application of rare ginsenosides, and a challenge they face is that there are limitations in the original way of obtaining rare ginsenosides. Rare ginsenosides are originally obtained by bodily metabolism. People are able to absorb the nutrients when they eat ginsengs and metabolize ginsenosides if the ginsengs contain the constituents. It is difficult for cancer patients to absorb the nutrients fully since they tend to have less functional digestive systems, which play essential roles in the absorption of rare ginsenosides. Those who are aging or suffering from other diseases are less likely to absorb the nutrients as fully as healthy people. Each American ginseng contains a limited amount of rare ginsenosides to a different degree as their growth are highly subjected to environmental conditions including soil, water, humidity, and sunlight. There is a high demand for extracting these active ingredients completely from each ginseng plants so that rare ginsenosides can be utilized in a more efficient way.
Based on the fact that ginsenosides are discovered to be of high potentials for pharmaceutical application, pharmaceutical companies have made a great effort in developing some rare ginsenosides health products. Among most rare ginsenosides products on the market containing only one rare ginsenoside like Rh2 or Rg3, a supplement has drawn people’s attention for containing multicomponent rare ginsenosides including Rh2, Rg3, Rk2, Rh3 and aPPD and the concentration of highly active ingredients is claimed to reach 12% of the total supplement amount.