Ginseng is a medicinal plant very famous in Asia and recognized for its stimulating virtues, including for the development of physical strength¹.

A study was carried out in 2013² out of 90 people (21 men and 69 women) with idiopathic hypersomnia, which is characterized by excessive sleepiness during the day and sometimes long nights of sleep. The patients received either 1 or 2 g of alcoholic ginseng extract per day or a placebo for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks, the results showed that only a dose of 2 g of alcoholic extract of ginseng could improve the fatigue felt by the participants, estimated using the visual analogue scale. The patients who received 2 g of alcoholic extract of ginseng per day saw their state of fatigue go from 7,3 / 10 to 4,4 / 10 on the visual analogue scale against from 7,1 to 5,8 for the a group of witnesses. According to a test carried out on rats in 2010¹, the anti-fatigue properties of ginseng would be due to its polysaccharide content, and more precisely in acidic polysaccharides³, one of its active ingredients.

Ginseng would also be effective in fighting specifically against fatigue linked to cancer, as suggested by a study carried out in 2013⁴ out of 364 participants. After 8 weeks of treatment, questionnaires revealed that participants who received 2 g of ginseng per day were significantly less tired than those who took a placebo. No specific side effects were mentioned in the study.

Ginseng is therefore recommended in cases of chronic fatigue and can be used as a mother tincture, a decoction of dried roots or as a standardized extract.

Wang J, Li S, Fan Y, et al., Anti-fatigue activity of the water-soluble polysaccharides isolated from Panax Ginseng C. A. Meyer, J Ethnopharmacol, 2010 Kim HG, Cho JH, Yoo SR, et al., Antifatigue effects of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, PLoS One, 2013 Wang J, Sun C, Zheng Y, et al., The effective mechanism of the polysaccharides from Panax ginseng on chronic fatigue syndrome, Arch Pharm Res, 2014 Barton DL, Liu H, Dakhil SR, et al., Wisconsin Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) to improve cancer-related fatigue: a randomized, double-blind trial, N07C2, J Natl Cancer Inst, 2013