"In work that emphasizes the need for stronger regulation of herbal drugs, an international team of MIT scientists and colleagues has unraveled the yin and the yang of ginseng, or why the popular alternative medicine can have two entirely different, opposing effects on the body."
(source: boingboing)
I'm too cheap to pay 15 dollars for 24 hour access to the article published in Circulation magazine, so I just read the abstract. Unfortunately it doesn't say which varieties of ginseng contain Rg1 and Rb1. However, it does say that Rg1 creates conditions favorable to the creation of new red blood cells and Rb1 acts as an inhibitor in the process and has the opposite effect. It looks like the magazine is carried at the King Library, so I'll have to take a look at it later.
I haven't posted a comment for a while. Anyway, I am not familiar with the composition of ginseng and whatnot, but I was always told that it makes an excellent beverage when one is immersed in a dry environment. There are some other benefits of ginseng, but I will need to inquire and/or look it up again.
Growing up, we were always told to drink certain herbal beverages without asking or learning why we have to. We just did what we were told no matter how unappetizing they are. Ginseng does not taste bad though. Well, at least to me. =)