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Eleutherococcus (Siberian ginseng) is the root of Eleutherococcus senticosus, a plant in the ginseng family that is different from true ginseng (Panax). Other names for it are spiny ginseng, eleuthero ginseng, and eleuthero. Many people in Russia, including athletes and cosmonauts, use it to increase endurance and resistance to stress, and Russian researchers have shown that it does have these properties. They call it an "adaptogen," a substance that promotes adaptation to environmental stress of all kinds. In the past such a substance was called a tonic, something that tones or stretches the system, making it more resilient, better able to bend under pressure rather than break.