Zebrafish as a promising model for investigating biological activities of ginseng species—a review

Plants of the ginseng species have a long history with broad traditional applications, as these are recognized as precious tonic herbal medicines since ancient times. More and more multiple chemical constituents and pharmacological activities have been confirmed and discovered recently. Owing to its advantages, such as intuitiveness, cheap, easy to operate, and high-throughput screening, zebrafish has become a very popular model at present. Recently, more and more toxicity tests, bio-activity evaluation, and mechanism studies have been achieved via zebrafish models, many of which were focused on the nature of products, including monomers, extracts, and formulas from ginseng species. This review summarizes the recent pharmacological studies achieved by embryos, larvae, and adult zebrafish. This review provides a theoretical basis for the rational use of ginseng species plants, thus providing guidance for a better rational utilization and the potential innovative product development of ginseng species plants.