Influence Of Ginseng Administration On Serum Levels Of Testosterone, Androstendione, Deha, Deha-s And E2 Levels

Introduction.
Panax Ginseng (G-115) is a herbal medicine which is extensively used as supplement by athletes in order to decrease
the damaging effects of stress and promote recovery from hard training and frequent competitions. The systems mainly
affected by stress are the endocrine and immune system and temporary alterations of both systems have been frequently
observed following exhaustive exercise. The available results from animal experiments has shown that G-115 exerts an
antioxidant action and can protect the immune system after intense exercise. G-115 is composed of saponins. These are
compounds of plant origin with a chemical structure similar to steroid hormones (FIG 1) G-115 extract is composed by
various ginsenosides (saponins) which are the active susbtances .The purpose of the study was to find out if high doses
of orally administered G-115 could be metabolized into Testosterone, 17 beta-Estradiol, Delta-4-,3,17 Androstendione
and Dehydroepiandrosterone as detected in serum following a period of 10 days daily administration in 5 volunteers.
Three subjects received 600 mg and two subjects received 800 mg G-115 extract . . These doses correspond to 16 and
32 mg ginsenosides respectively. Following the ingestion blood was taken from an antecubital vein after 2, 3 and 4
hours and steroids in serum were measured by RIA. technique.

Results.
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The results did not show any significant increase of the studied steroids.

Discussion/ Conclusions
The study demonstrates that the ingestion of relatively high doses of ginsenoids contained in G-115 extract are not
metabolized in steroids which are included in the IOC list of banned substances

NOTA: O texto com a iconografia está no anexo.

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