"modern herbalists say
adaptogenic herbs are plants
with properties that exert a normalizing influence on the body."
http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/DISCONTINUED/Adaptogenic_Herbs.shtml
"An
adaptogenic substance is one that demonstrates a nonspecific enhancement of the body's ability to resist a stressor. The term was first introduced in 1947 by Russian scientist N.V. Lazarev to describe the unique action of a material claimed to increase nonspecific resistance of an organism to an adverse influence. In 1958, I.I. Brekhman, a Russian holistic medical doctor, and his colleague I.V. Dardymov, established the following definition of an adaptogen: It "must be innocuous and cause minimal disorders in the physiological functions of an organism, it must have a nonspecific action, and it usually has a normalizing action irrespective of the direction of the pathological state."1"
http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ginseng.shtml