Although ginseng has long been broadly used in clinical settings around the world, few clinical trials on ginseng have been\nconducted. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the characteristics of ginseng clinical trials\nregistered in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) as of December 2017 regarding their frequency,\ndesign, type of ginseng, dosage, duration, condition, funding sources, and publication status. A total of 134 ginseng clinical studies\nwere registered from2002 to 2017, of which 60.4% were completed and 23.1% are actively recruiting participants. A large number of\ntrials were associated with aspects of high-quality trial design. Overall, 94% of the trials employed randomized allocation to study\narms, 78.4% were double-blind studies using placebo as one of the control groups, and 71% were published as completed trials.\nTrials whose sample size was restricted to fewer than 100 participants accounted for 74.7% of the total. Of the primary funding\nsources for ginseng studies, 67.2% were nonindustry organizations. The ginseng clinical trials were heterogeneous with respect\nto ginseng species and variety, indications, dose, duration, and participant characteristics. Clearly, stricter and methodologically\nsuitable studies are needed to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of ginseng.
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