Once called Siberian ginseng, it is now known in the United States by its new name Eleuthero, the herb’s scientific name being Eleutherococcus setaceous. A couple of other names are touch-me-not and devil’s shrub. The Chinese use the name ci-wu-jia for it, which is grown in their country’s northeastern provinces. It is also grown in Japan, Korea and Russia.
The shrub’s root, the root bark and its stem are the main parts of the plant from which comes the active ingredient of eleuthero. In order to harvest, the plant should be at least two years or more in age. The value of the plant grows with age. The Chinese have always assigned to it immense importance and value, due to which the plant products are sold at very high prices.
In the Far East and in China, eleuthero is quite widely used as a general tonic, for boosting a person’s energy levels. For improving the vital energy, Qi (Chi), levels, the Chinese have been using eleuthero for at least two thousand years. In Russia, researches on the properties and effectiveness since the middle of the twentieth century, on which the Chinese also depended, have shown that eleuthero is very effective in improving general health, increasing appetite, boosting vigor and in normalizing a person’s body functions. It has been found to be a substance that helps you to adapt to the various changing factors that cause stress. These could be lack of sleep or too much of exertion or even weather changes, for instance. To counter the problems of stress, eleuthero helps maintain the normal functioning of the adrenal glands. Many people use it also because of its ability to work for toning up the general health and to promote longevity.
The active components of eleuthero are called eleutherosides. These, together with its complex polysaccharides (a type of sugar molecule), increase the energy levels in the body by means of preventing too much glycogen from being spent, when the energy requirements of the body are being met by the utilization of fatty acids. Another thing that this active ingredient does is to help the body to increase its working capacity by means of preserving the oxygen levels in its working muscles. This only means that you can remain active for longer hours as your muscles retain more energy, thanks to eleuthero. As eleuthero also optimizes performance under stressful conditions, athletes use it for achieving better results in competitions.
It is effective in preventing, or at least alleviating, the side effects of exposure to radiation. Due its being able to build the body’s immune system, people use it as a preventive for cold and flu attacks. Suggestions, though based on inconclusive evidence, are made to the effect that eleuthero may be very useful in managing the long term immune system related conditions like the HIV and lupus (an auto-immune illness).
Eleuthero products are available in various forms in the United States. These include capsules, tablets, tinctures and also powders of dried roots and rhizomes of the shrub.
