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| Korean red ginseng / Courtesy of the Korea Ginseng Corporation |
By Yi Whan-woo
Korean red ginseng, as multiple lab studies have showed, is known to improve vaccine performance.
Thus, red ginseng products have recently been gaining attention amidst the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drives in and outside of Korea, according to the Korea Ginseng Corporation (KGC) on Sunday.
To help the public get better acquainted with red ginseng's role in improving vaccine effectiveness, KGC, a state-run enterprise, recently had its research institute compile relevant studies from the past.
The studies were about the correlation between the intake of red ginseng and the survival rates of lab mice when they were exposed to respiratory viruses.
A 2012 Journal of Medicinal Food report, titled, "Protective Effect of Korean Red Ginseng Extract on the Infections by H1N1 and H3N2 Influenza Viruses in Mice," showed that mice given concentrated red ginseng extract for 14 days developed higher immunity than those that were not, when both groups were administered with vaccines for H1N1 and H3N2, and then injected with the two viruses.
The former group also had less of an inflammatory response.
A separate report from the Journal of Ginseng Research in 2019 showed similar results.
Titled, "Korean Red Ginseng enhances pneumococcal pep27 vaccine efficacy by inhibiting reactive oxygen species production," the report says the mice given concentrated red ginseng extract required less time to develop immunity than those that were not, before both groups were administered with the pep27 vaccine and exposed to the virus.
"The studies help explain how ginseng improves the performance of a vaccine and can contribute to people around the world living healthy lives," KGC said.
KGC noted that the multiple health benefits of red ginseng have been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, including that it fights fatigue, boosts the immune system, and improves memory and blood circulation.
In 2020, KGC signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Vaccine Institute to jointly develop immunity boosters.
