Eleutherococcus

Eleutherococcus is also a drug derived from a plant belonging to the Araliacee family, Eleutherococcus senticosus, very similar to ginseng. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, also called Siberian ginseng, because it is grown at high latitudes.

Eleutherococcus is a drug characterized by the rhizome and roots, and presents an extremely diversified phytocomplex; for this reason, it is not possible to identify a particular category of compounds to which the adaptogenic and tonic properties are ascribed, contrary to what we have done with Ginkgo or ginseng. The eleutherococcus phytocomplex is characterized both by saponins, but also by coumarins, terpenes, flavonoids, lactone compounds and heteropolysaccharide compounds; the secondary metabolites are all glycosylated, in fact they are generically called eleuterosides.

Of the eleuterococcus it is important to underline that, although presenting saponins, and being as such associated with ginseng, in reality it is characterized by an extremely diversified set of active principles, and it is difficult to associate a functionality with a unique chemical class, because all are present in the drug in an equivalent way and all give functional expression, both in vivo and in vitro, of its adaptogenic property.

The virtues of this drug are therefore linked to eleuterosides, that is to the complex of glycosides characterized by a diversified aglycone.

With adaptogenic drugs and drugs characterized by flavonoid compounds we have concluded what is the set of active principles that characterize the biogenetic pathway of scichimic acid.