Eleutherococcus senticosus as a crude medicine: Review of biotechnological effects

Eleutherococcus senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Harms (= Acanthopanax senticosus, Araliaceae), also called Siberian ginseng, Ciwujia in Chinese and Gasiogalpi in Korean, is a woody medicinal plant, distributed in the cold regions of Northeast Asia. E. senticosus (ES, thereafter) has been found to possess efficacies on strengthening spleen and nourishing kidney in the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As its great medicinal and economic significance, ES is popularly considered as an “adaptogen” like Panax ginseng . In recent decades, a great number of biotechnological, chemical, pharmacological, and clinical studies on ES have been carried out worldwide. The goal of present review is to up-to-date and comprehensively analyze the biotechnological trials on traditional propagation, embryogenesis, and molecular classification of ES. Due to the poor and/or even failed seed setting and over-exploitation, ES has been prescribed as an endangered plant by the Environmental Ministry in Korea. Despite conventional propagations including seed and stem cutting propagation, have achieved a great process, their productivity could not come up to that through in vitro micro- and mass-propagation of ES. And the in vitro regenerated plantlets have been used as materials for production of secondary metabolites and other biotechnological applications. Molecular classification by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis could help further understanding of relationships among populations, growth conditions, and quality as medicinal materials to improve farm cultivation of ES.