Am J Chin Med. 1998 ; 26(2): 199-209.

Effect of red ginseng on blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension and white coat hypertension.

Han KH, Choe SC, Kim HS, Sohn DW, Nam KY, Oh BH, Lee MM, Park YB, Choi YS, Seo JD, Lee YW.

Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the changes of diurnal blood pressure pattern after 8 weeks of red ginseng medication (4.5 g/day) by 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. In 26 subjects with essential hypertension, 24 hour mean systolic blood pressure decreased significantly (p = 0.03) while diastolic blood pressure only showed a tendency of decline (p = 0.17). The decrease in pressures were observed at daytime (8 A.M.-6 P.M.) and dawn (5 A.M.-7 A.M.). In 8 subjects with white coat hypertension, no significant blood pressure change was observed. We suggest that red ginseng might be useful as a relatively safe medication adjuvant to current antihypertensive medications.