After ginseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus , commonly known as Eleuthero, is perhaps the most widely known medicinal plant from among Russian Aralia. It is also famous overseas, where they call it "Siberian ginseng." Eleuthero is a barby shrub with few branches; normally it is 1-2 m tall, and under favorable conditions grows up to 5-7 m high. The bark of one-year shoots is light-gray or light-brown, and is spattered with numerous fine, sharp and brittle barbs up to I cm long. The buds are elongate and top-shaped. They are covered with oval brown-grayish scales. The terminal buds are larger than the side buds; the former are 5-7 mm long, and the latter up to 5 mm long. In most cases, the leaves are penta-palpatinocomplex and alternate. The leaflets have biserrate edges; their top is green or dark-green, almost naked, and below lighter and short-downed, up to 19 cm long. The flowers are bisexual, pistilate (female) and staminate (male). Pistillate and staminate flowers are morphologically bisexual, but given that the former have a sterile gynecium (consisting of only female flower organs), and the latter an androcium (consisting of only staminate structures), they function as monosexual flowers. Eleuthero flowers are clustered in ball-shaped loose umbels, either as single or 3-4 flowers on branch ends.

Corresponding to its flowers, Eleuthero has only three sexual forms of plants: hermaphrodite specimens with bisexual flowers, male specimens with staminate flowers, and female specimens with pistillate flowers.

Eleuthero blossoms in July-August and bear fruits in September and October. The fruits are black, ball-shaped, 7-10 mm in diameter, and slightly squeezed at the ends, with yellowish-green flesh. They contain five large seeds, strongly flattened from the sides.

Eleuthero ranges from the Russian Far East (southeastern Amur Region, central and southern parts of Khabarovsk Territory, Primorye, and Sakhalin), Northeastern China, northern and central Korea, and Japan (Hokkaido). Several isolated Eleuthero areas are located outside its principal range, on the left banks of Zeya and Selemja rivers. Eleuthero grows further to the north than all the other Russian Far Eastern Aralia, reaching 52° 50 North Latitude.

Groups and small thickets of Eleuthero grow in coniferous and mixed alpine forests along ravines and roads. In extreme northern and western habitats, Eleuthero is retained only in the lower parts of southern slopes, where the water and heat regimes are best for its growth.

Detailed study of Eleuthero's medicinal properties was started in the 1950s at the Far East Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. By that time, it became clear that the growing need in ginseng preparations could not be met at the expense of its considerably depleted natural resources. Again, ginseng cultivation was only beginning. So botanists turned to its closest relatives, namely species of Aralia, Oplopanax, and Eleutherococcus, plants they had ignored up until this time. It turned out that these plants possess nearly the same chemical composition and pharmacological effect as ginseng. Eleuthero presented special interest, because at that time its vast stocks were to resolve the issue of obtaining medicinal raw material, and its effect on the human body proved quite versatile.

Today, we know that Eleuthero preparations possess a wide action spectrum. Its major property is in its ability to enhance body resistance to numerous pathogenic factors (adaptogenic effects). Like ginseng, Eleuthero produces a comprehensive strengthening and toning impact; it has been recommended in treating various neural diseases, impotence, lung ailments, medium forms of diabetes mellitus, and malignant tumors. The results of pharmacological investigations of Eleuthero have been summarized by I. V. Dardymov and E. l. Khasina (1993) in their book. The said authors postulate Eleuthero's multiple effect on the human body, which involves: (1) an energy-mobilizing impact, primarily through intensified utilization of glucose; (2) stress-protective effect conditioned by change in regulating the central nervous system and hormonal regulation; (3) action of Eleuthero on the effects of hormones and their mediators, including changes in the contents of cyclic nucleotides and prostaglandins.

Eleuthero is quite extensively used in the countries of Southeast Asia and in Japan.

List of illustrations:

Fig. 8.1. Blossoming stages of bisexual Eleuthero flowers: 1. Beginning of petal divergence; 2-4. Curling of petals to ovary, and divergence of staminas; 5. Fall of staminas, elongation of style and divergence of stigmas.

Fig. 8.2. Geographic distribution of Eleuthero.