Contemporary perceptions of ginseng among individuals with health needs: A nationwide questionnaire survey

IF 7.5 2区医学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL

Journal of Ginseng Research Pub Date : 2026-07-01 Epub Date: 2026-04-02 DOI:10.1016/j.jgr.2026.101027

Yinger Gu, Zheng Yao, Keyi Shi, Lei Huang, Pingchun Yang, Qiaoping Zhao, Ting Lu, Yaping Meng, Ji Jin, Xiaoteng Chen, Nv Xia, Yingchun Zhang, Fangfang Wang, Lijuan Ma, Yangqing Zheng, Haifeng Huang, Cheng Wang, Lingling Lou, Longlong Fan, Jue Zhou, Fan Qu

{"title":"Contemporary perceptions of ginseng among individuals with health needs: A nationwide questionnaire survey","authors":"Yinger Gu, Zheng Yao, Keyi Shi, Lei Huang, Pingchun Yang, Qiaoping Zhao, Ting Lu, Yaping Meng, Ji Jin, Xiaoteng Chen, Nv Xia, Yingchun Zhang, Fangfang Wang, Lijuan Ma, Yangqing Zheng, Haifeng Huang, Cheng Wang, Lingling Lou, Longlong Fan, Jue Zhou, Fan Qu","doi":"10.1016/j.jgr.2026.101027","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>As market interest and consumer demand for ginseng increase, there remains a limited understanding of ginseng among individuals with health needs. This study investigated these perceptions and their influencing factors through a nationwide survey in China.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A multicenter, cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out from September 26 to October 10, 2025, across 15 medical institutions in China, involving a total of 5041 patients.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Individuals with health needs showed different ginseng perceptions based on their health status. Those without chronic diseases demonstrated higher awareness of traditional ginseng benefits such as boosting immunity (89.05%) and combating fatigue (76.22%), greater familiarity with American ginseng (77.18%), and primarily relied on family/friends (70.22%) for information. Individuals with chronic conditions demonstrated a diminished awareness of traditional benefits but a heightened recognition of mood and mental state improvement (61.84%), and an increased familiarity with ginseng cultivated in Korea (71.41%) and mountain-cultivated ginseng (73.45%). Their information sources were predominantly from physicians, pharmacists, and nutritionists (63.26%). Medical professionals demonstrated limited awareness of niche varieties like mountain-cultivated ginseng (23.94%) and specific disease-management benefits like blood sugar regulation (26.02%). Regarding safety perception, 69.56% held neutral or unaware views on potential side effects, and 20.99% incorrectly believed ginseng was suitable for everyone.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>There exists heterogeneity in the understanding of ginseng across various groups, and the public health education should employ targeted strategies for people with different health statuses to encourage rational use of ginseng.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ginseng Research","volume":"50 4","pages":"Article 101027"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13324102/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Ginseng Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1226845326000539","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/4/2 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

As market interest and consumer demand for ginseng increase, there remains a limited understanding of ginseng among individuals with health needs. This study investigated these perceptions and their influencing factors through a nationwide survey in China.

Methods

A multicenter, cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out from September 26 to October 10, 2025, across 15 medical institutions in China, involving a total of 5041 patients.

Results

Individuals with health needs showed different ginseng perceptions based on their health status. Those without chronic diseases demonstrated higher awareness of traditional ginseng benefits such as boosting immunity (89.05%) and combating fatigue (76.22%), greater familiarity with American ginseng (77.18%), and primarily relied on family/friends (70.22%) for information. Individuals with chronic conditions demonstrated a diminished awareness of traditional benefits but a heightened recognition of mood and mental state improvement (61.84%), and an increased familiarity with ginseng cultivated in Korea (71.41%) and mountain-cultivated ginseng (73.45%). Their information sources were predominantly from physicians, pharmacists, and nutritionists (63.26%). Medical professionals demonstrated limited awareness of niche varieties like mountain-cultivated ginseng (23.94%) and specific disease-management benefits like blood sugar regulation (26.02%). Regarding safety perception, 69.56% held neutral or unaware views on potential side effects, and 20.99% incorrectly believed ginseng was suitable for everyone.

Conclusion

There exists heterogeneity in the understanding of ginseng across various groups, and the public health education should employ targeted strategies for people with different health statuses to encourage rational use of ginseng.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

有健康需要的个人对人参的当代认知：一项全国性的问卷调查。

背景：随着市场对人参的兴趣和消费者需求的增加，有健康需求的个人对人参的了解仍然有限。本研究在全国范围内调查了这些认知及其影响因素。方法：于2025年9月26日至10月10日在全国15家医疗机构进行多中心横断面问卷调查，共涉及5041例患者。结果：不同健康需求个体对人参的认知存在差异。没有慢性疾病的人对传统人参的益处（如增强免疫力（89.05%）和抗疲劳（76.22%））的认识程度更高，对西洋参的了解程度更高（77.18%），主要依靠家人/朋友（70.22%）获取信息。慢性疾病患者对传统人参益处的认识降低，但对情绪和精神状态改善的认识提高（61.84%），对韩国人参种植（71.41%）和山地人参种植（73.45%）的熟悉程度增加。信息来源主要为医师、药师和营养学家（63.26%）。医学专业人员对山参等利基品种（23.94%）和调节血糖等特定疾病管理益处（26.02%）的认识有限。在安全认知方面，69.56%的人对潜在的副作用持中立或不知情的看法，20.99%的人错误地认为人参适合所有人。结论：不同人群对人参的认识存在异质性，公共卫生教育应针对不同健康状况人群采取针对性策略，鼓励合理使用人参。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Ginseng Research CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL-INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE

CiteScore

11.40

自引率

9.50%

发文量

111

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Journal of Ginseng Research (JGR) is an official, open access journal of the Korean Society of Ginseng and is the only international journal publishing scholarly reports on ginseng research in the world. The journal is a bimonthly peer-reviewed publication featuring high-quality studies related to basic, pre-clinical, and clinical researches on ginseng to reflect recent progresses in ginseng research. JGR publishes papers, either experimental or theoretical, that advance our understanding of ginseng science, including plant sciences, biology, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, veterinary medicine, biochemistry, manufacture, and clinical study of ginseng since 1976. It also includes the new paradigm of integrative research, covering alternative medicinal approaches. Article types considered for publication include review articles, original research articles, and brief reports. JGR helps researchers to understand mechanisms for traditional efficacy of ginseng and to put their clinical evidence together. It provides balanced information on basic science and clinical applications to researchers, manufacturers, practitioners, teachers, scholars, and medical doctors.