Although plants are used for health care and for a more active life since the very
early stages of human being, the fact that the resources allocated for the area of health
care have been increasing day by day in the recent years conduced the attention of
scientists to be drawn towards herbal products
1. It was realized that the potential
protective effects of herbal diets originate from the substances with antioxidant
properties that these carry, and these antioxidants protect the cells against the
destructive effects of natural oxidation reactions
2. As well as exposure to toxins and pathogens, various factors encountered in daily life such
as exhaust gas, chemical preservatives in convenience
food, smoking, heavy metals in water and high oxygen
concentration increase free radical production and
accordingly, oxidative stress
3. Increased free oxygen
radicals cause many diseases including cardiovascular
diseases, neurological disorders, asthma, diabetes
mellitus, rheumatologic diseases, cancer and aging
4.
Even though humans and other organisms have
protective and regenerative defense systems against the
oxidative damage caused by free oxygen radicals, these
systems are often inadequate in the prevention of
oxidative damage
5. In case of situations when these
natural defense systems remain incapable, the use of
antioxidants produced from specific new sources gain
even more importance in fighting oxidative stress
6.
Conducted studies indicate that plants such as Panax
ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum are also natural
antioxidants. Derived from the Greek word meaning “allhealing”,
Ginseng is stated to have effects such as
supporting antioxidant defense system and stimulating
cellular defence systems
7. In the previous studies, it
was observed that Panax ginseng extract reduces
oxidative stress, changes antioxidant enzyme activities to
eliminate free radicals and therefore, reduces the end
products originating from lipid peroxidation in tissue
8,9. Known as Lingzhi (mushroom of immortality) in
China, Ganoderma lucidum has been used in traditional
medicine in China, Korea, Japan and other Pacific
countries for 2000 years
10. Ganoderma lucidum
extracts were stated to have various biological activities
such as anti-cancer, anti-stress, immunostimulant and
antioxidation both in in-vivo and in-vitro studies
11.
While Ganoderma lucidum includes numerous
compounds, the most significant ones of these are
Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides
12. Although
Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides were demonstrated
to have protective effect against the oxidative damage
resulting from both physical and chemical agents in
tissue culture and animal studies, most of these studies
in limited number were obtained by means of nonbiological
systems or in-vitro cell studies
13,14.
In this study, the effects of Panax ginseng and Panax
ginseng + Ganoderma lucidum extracts orally
administered to hamsters for 60 days on oxidative stress,
lipid profile and liver protein expressions were studied.