Prof Robert Winston
Professor of Science and Society
Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College



If you come out in an rash when you eat fish, maybe you should try ginseng. So far there have been claims for its effectiveness in treating acidity, back pain, cancer, Crohn’s disease, depression, impotence, chronic hair loss, urinary difficulties, chronic diarrhoea, headache, high blood pressure, insomnia, rashes of various kinds, hot flushes, diabetes, and as a aphrodisiac. Now it seems it improves intelligence.

Dr Scholey, of the Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, University of Northumbria, Newcastle, undertook three studies involving, mathematical tasks of varying difficulty, when a number of young man and woman were tested for speed of problem solving. They were given different amounts of ginseng in a randomized fashion and were not informed whether what they had ingested was a placebo or the real thing.

Different doses of ginseng improved accuracy...

From the book The Human Mind by Robert Winston
ISBN: 978-0553816198