The fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine promotes a list of 50 basic herbs. Ginseng is adaptogenic which is a term used by herbalists to refer to a natural herb product that is said to increase the body's resistance to stress, trauma, anxiety and fatigue.

The goal was to identify and define those herbs, that when combined as a topical cream, would have the healing benefits of prescribed anti bacterial, anti biotic and anti inflammatory creams of Western Medicine. This article describes several TCM herbs (not all on the list of 50) that have gained appeal for both topical and ingested value. The top herbs with those topical attributes are listed below.

Ginseng - It grows in the Northern Hemisphere in eastern Asia (mostly northern China, Korea, and eastern Siberia). The typical, initial impression, is that the remedies associated with them, or combinations of them, are ingested rather than topical.

Additionally, a study at the University of Hong Kong suggests Ginseng has anti-inflammatory effects.

With further knowledge of TCM, you find that many of the basic 50 have both topical and ingested actions.