LabDoor Ranks Best Ginseng Supplements For Fatigue, Colds, and Arousal

Labdoor, the supplement testing and rating service, announces the publishing of their new Ginseng Rankings, now online and ready to help consumers find the highest quality ginseng supplements on the market.

Labdoor tested 20 best-selling ginseng supplements for ginsenoside content, pesticide residues, and heavy metal load, and found that many of the most popular ginseng supplements on the market contained actual quantities of active ingredients that deviated significantly from what their labels claimed.

Ginseng has been used for centuries due to its medicinal properties, and only recently has clinical research begun to validate some of those uses. Ginsenosides are a collection of active compounds responsible for most of Asian and American ginseng's clinical benefits. In research, Asian (Panax) ginseng has been found to be helpful as a mental stimulant, combatting fatigue and improving mental performance. A few studies even go on to postulate that this property might be helpful for resisting the mental deterioration that comes along with Alzheimer's disease.

Asian ginseng might also be helpful for treating erectile dysfunction and enhancing sexual arousal in women. American ginseng, because of its own specific composition of ginsenosides, boasts a different set of uses including the management of blood sugar levels in people with Type II diabetes. Both types have been found to be effective for preventing and reducing the severity of flus and colds.

Labdoor's Ginseng Rankings highlight how inaccurate and mysterious some supplement labels can be. 9 of 20 products tested did not specify ginsenoside, or active ingredient, content at all. Of the 11 products that did claim ginsenoside content, measured quantities deviated from label claims by an average of 62 percent. Three products, Trunature Triple Energy, Spring Valley Korean Panax Ginseng, and Sundown Naturals Korean Ginseng recorded more than double the ginsenoside content that their labels claimed.

Auragin Korean Ginseng, on the other hand, had only 69 percent of the ginsenoside content promised on its label. Overall, Nature's Answer American Ginseng and NuSci Panax Ginseng were ranked #1 and #2 in Quality Rankings, with NuSci Panax Ginseng ranking #1 in Value Rankings as well.

Currently, there is no established safe upper limit for ginseng intake, but all tested products were well within observed safe levels as described in research. All products also passed heavy metal and pesticide residue screenings. Commonly reported side effects of ginseng include insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and vaginal bleeding. Ginseng is also famous for dangerously interacting with other herbs, supplements, and medications, and should be taken under physician supervision given these other treatments or any diagnosed medical conditions.

This new report from Labdoor is designed to help consumers find effective and safe ginseng supplements. Labdoor publishes the data about each product's active ingredients and potential contaminants on its website. "Quality" and "Value" rankings are also available for viewers to sort through and select products of interest.