Ginseng and Anticancer Drug Combination to Improve Cancer Chemotherapy: A Critical Review

Table 1

Anticancer activities of commonly studied relevant ginsenosides [5, 8, 11–14].

Ginsenoside	Anticancer activity	Molecular mechanism
Rb1	Weakly antiproliferative; antiangiogenic	(i) Inhibit capillary genesis; (ii) Inhibit TNF-a release; (iii) Protect against oxidative stress; (iv) Inhibit tube-like structure formation of endothelial cells by regulating pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) through estrogen receptor-𝜷 [13, 14]
Rb3	No antiproliferative activity	Inhibit TNF-𝛼 release
Rg1	Antiproliferative	(i) Inhibit oncogenes c-myc, c-fos; (ii) Downregulate nucleophosmin.
Rg3	Antiproliferative, apoptotic, antiangiogenic, antimetastatic, anti-invasive, and cell cycle regulation, [8, 11, 12]	(i) Regulate mitochondrial cytochrome C, poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) and C9; (ii) Inhibit MMP-2 and 9; (iii) Inhibit adhesion of metastatic cells to basement membrane; (iv) Inhibit MDR (most potent among all ginsenosides)
Rh1	Causes differentiation of teratocarcinoma cells, strongly apoptotic	(i) Bind to steroid receptor; (ii) Inhibit TNF-𝛼; (iii) Inhibit phosphorylation of JAK1, STAT1, STAT3, and ERK