Charaterization of Ginsenosides-induce d Antinociception in Mice

We have investigated the antinociceptive efficacy of ginseng saponins in mice using l% formalin, which induce two phases of pain (acute and tonic pains) and is known to induce a clinically related pain. Ginseng total saponins (GTS) relieved both phases of pain with EDso of 162 mghg for acute and 92 mg/kg for tonic pain, respectively. Both protopanaxadiol (PD) and protopanaxatriol (PT) saponins did not attenuated acute phase of pain but relieved tonic phase of pain with EDso of 45 mg/kg for PD saponins and 105 mghg for PT saponins, respectively. Moreover, ginsenoside Rc, Rd, and Re among representative ginsenosides such as Rbl, Rc, Rd, Re and Rgl relieved slightly but significantly acute phase of pain and strongly attenuated tonic phase of pain but Rf relieved only tonic phase of pain. However, PD and PT saponins, and the individual ginsenosides tested except GTS did not greatly attenuate thermal noxious pain (tail-flick test). These results suggest that single ginsenoside or mixture of various ginsenosides mainly induce differential antinociception in mice.