• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.255-263
• /
• 2020

Ginsenosides are considered to be the most important ingredients in ginseng. They are chemically converted by endogenous organic acids contained in ginseng and the heat applied during red ginseng processing. During this procedure, various converted ginsenosides are produced through hydrolysis of substitute sugars of ginsenosides and forming double bonds through dehydration in the dammarane skeleton. In order to study the conversion mechanism of protopanaxadiol-type ginsenosides during the heat treatment process of ginseng, we purified the three final converted ginsenosides by heating fresh ginseng for a long time. The three isolated ginsenosides were identified as 25(OH)-ginsenoside Rg5, 25(OH)-ginsenoside Rz1 and 25(OH)-ginsenoside Rg3 through NMR spectrum analysis. As a result of quantification of ginseng heated at 100 ℃ for 0 to 6 days by HPLC/UV and TLC methods, the content of 25(OH)-ginsenosides tended to increase in proportion to the time exposed to heat. In particular, the content of 25(OH)-ginsenosid Rg5 was confirmed to be noticeably increased.