Common Name:
Eleuthero
Siberian Ginseng (this plant is not a true ginseng). This label is rarely if ever used in commerce anymore but the confusion persists.
Botanical Name:
Eleutherocauccus senticoccus
This plant is in the same family (Araliaceae) as the Panax spp. of ginseng. It is a different genus and very distantly related. The link between these plants used to be emphasized for marketing reasons.
Energy & Taste:
A fairly neutral energy and less stimulating than some other adaptogens, making this herb beneficial for a wide variety of ages and all doshas if formulated properly.
Traditional Uses:
-Nervine tonic for a high stress environment
-Hepato-tonic
-Anti-oxidant
-Deep immune tonic, including for cancer therapy
-Supports the body’s resistance to a wide range of degenerative diseases
-Increases physical performance – endurance, reaction time, strength
-Broadly balancing to the endocrine system
-Ideal for the modern person who is overstressed, undernourished, overfed, with low adrenals and dark circles under the eyes
-Increases mental performance including memory, learning ability, alertness and thinking association with motor activity.
-An amphoteric – it supports normalization of functions that are either excess or deficient such as high/low blood pressure or high/low blood sugar
-Classified as an ergogenic (ergo = work & gen = production of), long term use of this herb increased production by cosmonauts, factory workers and Olympic athletes, among others
Quality & Cost:
Eleuthero grown in Russia is noticeably more therapeutic than what is grown in China.
China provides most of what is available in the US market today. Know your sources
The Chinese Eleuthero is known as Ciwuja and should be avoided
Method of Preparation:
Alcohol extract is the most common form.
The root is the most commonly used part of the plant although research shows that a combination of the root and leaf is more effective
Combinations:
Due to its mild energetics, it can be combined with a large range of other adaptogens. Eleuthero often makes up about 20% of the total formula.
The Plant Profiles are brief materia medica summaries of plants encountered during plant walks or introduced during class on our longer programs. They are presented here to help students organize plant info on an ongoing basis. Although the Profiles are not meant to be comprehensive, they are offered here to the public in the hope that others find these pages useful.