Figure 1.

The mechanisms of ginseng activation proposed here in scheme summarizes that the active components of ginseng regulate Uncoupling Protein-2 (UCP-2), which results in a decrease in apoptosis and an increase of ATP production and thus insulin production, which will stimulates cellular glut4 activation to promote metabolism. Ginseng also activates cytochrome-c related Bcl-2 expressing, leading to an inhibition of caspase-9 triggered apoptosis cascade (23). ‘+’: positive effects ‘-’: negative effects ‘solid-line arrow’: known actions ‘dotted-line arrow’: recently discovered actions.