Ginseng has been used as an herbal medicine in Asia for over two thousand years for its purported various health benefits, including antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antiinflammatory, antihypertensive and anti-diabetic. The pharmacologically active compounds behind the claims of ginseng’s efficacy are ginsenosides; their underlying mechanism of action although not entirely elucidated appears to be similar to that of steroid hormones. There are a number of ginseng species, and each has its own set of ginsenosides.