International Journal of Medicinal Plants and Alternative Medicine Vol. 4(1), pp. 001-004, October 2016 ISSN 2327-560X ©2016 Academe Research Journals

Review

Daily dietary administration of a proprietary extract of North American ginseng results in progressive, transient but significant body weight gains in normal, elderly mice

Durairaj Punithavathi and Miller Sandra C*.

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, 36 40 University St., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0C7.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sandra.miller@mcgill.ca. Tel: 514-398-6358. Fax: 514-398-5047.

Accepted 3 October, 2016

Abstract

We have administered in vivo, a proprietary extract of North American ginseng (CVT-E002) to elderly (18 months) normal  C3H mice for 8 months at which time half were converted to the control diet for another 3.5 months. Control mice were identical in every way, except their diet contained no CVT-E002. Body weights (b.w.), recorded weekly, revealed a progressive increase throughout the first 6 months, reaching a maximum and plateauing thereafter in spite of continued CVT-E002. Withdrawal of CVT-E002 resulted in a progressive decrease in b.w. toward control levels during the subsequent 3.5 months. The transient, CVT-E002-dependency of the b.w. increments negates the possibility of metabolic disease induction by this extract.

Key words: North American ginseng, body weights, elderly mice.