Further Evidence in Support of Psychotropic Action on Red Ginseng

Using an ethopharmacological technique, we demonstrated that saponin fraction from red ginseng root possessed a potent psychotropic actions on either intermale or maternal aggression models. A series of experiments clearly indicated that one of psychoactive ingredient is ginsenoside Rbl. Although a drug-induced debilitation of motor performance remains a possible cause of the antiaggressive effect of the drug, ginsenoside Rb 1 did not alter the locomotor activity of the mice during agonistic confrontations. Thus, one can eliminate the possibility that the psychoactive effect of ginsenoside Rbl might be concealed by a drugindulced impairment of motor performance. More recently, we developed a new model for copulatory disorder and introduced into the behavioral analysis of drug action. Male mice which has been housed individually from weaning for 5 weeks failed to manifest copulatory behavior when they encountered with the sexually-receptive females. Daily administration of crude ginseng saponin during isolation housing period prevented the development of copulatory disorder, whereas both ginsenoside Rbl and Rgl were ineffective. A further experiment may be needed to explore active ingredient of ginseng saponins. Keywords Panax ginseng, Korean red ginseng, psychotropic action, saponin, ginsenoside Rb1