Hello Ghislaine,
An easy way to think of an adaptogen is as something that decreases damage from physical or mental stressors with little toxicity.
Here is my longer rendition of what an adaptogen is: An adaptogen augments resistance to stress and conserves
energy; when faced with a wide spectrum of stressors of different physical, mental, emotional natures. Adaptagens enhance general resistance and normalize the body when under stress by acting in a non-specific manner. They help keep the body in a balanced state of health by a variety of physiological coping mechanisms. Adaptogens have a normalizing effect on the body by counteracting or preventing disturbances brought about by a stressor or harmful factor. Ultimately they are thought to restore function and bring about inner balance.
You asked about a pattern or trend with this group of herbs. In my opinion, they are all working to support mitochondrial activity and this is what they share in common. There are drugs, pathogenic disease, environmental caused disease that are all causing mitochondrial dysfunction. Depending on the genetics of a person, their nutritional status and other healthy aspects, depends on how they react to these and other stressors. Mitochondrial (mitochondria create energy for the cell) dysfunction is a result of extreme stress on the person. This has caused a similar picture of chronic fatigue and dysfunction in the people with this issue. People are diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalitis or fibromyalgia or chronic lyme etc. In my opinion, they all have a similar picture as they all have mitochondrial dysfunction as the unifying problem. Adaptogens appear to all be supportive of mitochondrial function as the main mechanism of action. A person needs to completely change their life usually when they have mitochondrial dysfunction and it can be complicated but adaptogens are often part of their healing process.
You will hear people talk about adaptogens as adrenal supportive herbs, and indeed they are, and that was how these herbs use to be viewed largely, but we now see a bigger picture. The adrenals need the mitochondria to function properly and the mitochondria react to stress quickly. If stress goes on for quite a while they are terribly affected. When the mito are affected, all organs feel the pain. Ultimately they all get their energy from the mitochondria who are the first to be affected by stress. I won't go into this more as it is a huge topic and I could write a book about it. I hope to get an article up on mitochondrial dysfunction on my website in a few months.
Although, long term research is missing for many of them, Adaptogens have been considered to be safe and generally without side effects. Some of them are known to have side effects, that have shown up in the scientific literature, or in the clinical setting. There are not
enough toxicity studies undertaken on these herbs and those that exist are usually on animals and need to be undertaken on humans. There is a short list of herbs that most herbalists will agree are adaptogens. They don't all agree on them usually either.
Examples of adaptogens:
• Ashwagandha - Withania somnifera
• Bacopa - Bacopa monniera
• Bupleurum - Bupleurum chinense
• Dang shen - Codonopsis pilosula
• Ginseng - Panax spp.
• Holy basil - Ocimum sanctum
• Licorice - Glycyrrhiza glabra
• Linden - Tillia spp
• Oats - Avena sativa
• Reishi
mushroom - Ganoderma lucidum
•
Rose root (stonecrop) - Rhodiola rosea
• Schisandra - Schisandra chinensis
• Siberian ginseng - Eleutherococcus senticosus
• Turmeric - Curcuma longa