Effects of red ginseng upon vascular endothelial function in patients withessential hypertension

This study is to estimate the effect of Korean red ginseng on vascular endo thelial cell dysfunction in patients with hypertension. Seventeen patients with hypertension who were divided into ginseng-treated (7) and non-treated (10) groups and 10 normotensive subjects were included. To assess the func tion of the vascular endothelial cell, changes of forearm blood flow to inf usion of acetylcholine, sodium nitroprusside and bradykinin in incremental doses were measured by venous occlusion plethysmography. In the ginseng-tre ated hypertensive group, forearm blood flows at the highest dose of acetylc holine and bradykinin were significantly higher than those of the non-treat ed hypertensive group and were not different from those of the control grou p. In the case of sodium nitroprusside infusion, no significant differences were observed between the control, non-treated and treated groups. In conc lusion, Korean red ginseng can improve the vascular endothelial dysfunction in patients with hypertension possibly through increasing synthesis of nit ric oxide.