Adaptogens: Much more than anti-stress agents

The term “adaptogen” comes from the Latin verb adaptare (to adapt), which primarily refers to their ability to help the body adapt to all forms of stress.

Adaptogenic plants have some special properties that distin- guish them from other herbs or medicinal plants:

• they increase the body’s resistance to all possible forms of physical or mental stress or strain: heat, cold, exhaustion, viruses, bacteria, toxic substances, heavy metals, environ- mental pollution, radiation, and many others
• they restore the balance of all body systems after stress
• they modulate the stress response, protecting against the harmful effects of chronic stress and all the pathologies it can cause
• they modulate body systems such as the immune, nervous and endocrine systems, increasing or decreasing the activity of immune cells, neurotransmitters and hormones depending on the conditions
• they have no harmful effects in the body, do not disrupt processes, have no side effects, and have very low toxicity (even extremely high doses rarely cause undesirable effects)