• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 1981

The ginsenosides of Korean ginseng decomposed profoundly to produce artifact products of prosapogenin $A_{1}$, $A_{2}$ and $A_{3}$ from ginsenoside Rg$_{1}$, prosapogenin $C_{1}$, $C_{2}$ and $C_{3}$ from ginsenoside Re, and prosapogenin E$_{1}$, E$_{2}$ and E$_{3}$ from ginsenoside Rb$_{1}$ by the acid treatment under physiological condition such as 37.deg.C incubation in 0.1 N HCI. 2. The chemical structures of the artifact substances were determined by the analysis CMR and mass spectra of TMS derivatives as following; table omitted.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.509-513
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to develop a new preparation process of ginseng extract using high concentrations of ginsenoside $Rg_3$, a special component in red ginseng. From when the ginseng saponin glycosides transformed into the prosapogenins chemically, they were analyzed using the HPLC method. The ginseng and ginseng extract were processed with several treatment conditions of an edible brewing vinegar. The results indicated that ginsenoside $Rg_3$ quantities increased over 4% at the pH 2-4 level of vinegar treatment. This occurred at temperatures above $R90^{\circ}C$, but not occurred at other pH and temperature condition. In addition, the ginseng and ginseng extract were processed with the twice-brewed vinegar (about 14% acidity). This produced about 1.5 times more ginsenoside $Rg_3$ than those processed with regular amounts of brewing vinegar (about 7% acidity) and persimmon vinegar (about 3% acidity). Though the white ginseng extract was processed with the brewing vinegar over four hr, there was no change for ginsenoside $Rg_3$. However, the VG8-7 was the highest amount of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ (4.71%) in the white ginseng extract, which was processed with the twice-brewed vinegar for nine hr. These results indicate that ginseng treated with vinegar had 10 times the quantity of ginsenoside $Rg_3$, compared to the amount of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ in the generally commercial red ginseng, while ginsenoside $Rg_3$ was not found in raw and white ginseng.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.344-351
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• 2011

Ginsenoside $Rb_1$ is the main component in ginsenosides. It is a protopanaxadiol-type ginsenoside that has a dammarane-type triterpenoid as an aglycone. In this study, ginsenoside $Rb_1$ was transformed into gypenoside XVII, ginsenoside Rd, ginsenoside $F_2$ and compound K by glycosidase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides DC102. The optimum time for the conversion was about 72 h at a constant pH of 6.0 to 8.0 and the optimum temperature was about $30^{\circ}C$. Under optimal conditions, ginsenoside $Rb_1$ was decomposed and converted into compound K by 72 h post-reaction (99%). The enzymatic reaction was analyzed by highperformance liquid chromatography, suggesting the transformation pathway: ginsenoside $Rb_1$ ${\rightarrow}$ gypenoside XVII and ginsenoside Rd${\rightarrow}$ginsenoside $F_2{\rightarrow}$compound K.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2001

To search for cytotoxic components from Allium victoriallis , MTT assays on each extract and an isolated component, gitogenin 3-O-lycotetroside, were performed against cancer cell lines. Cytotoxicities of most extract were shown to be comparatively weak, though $IC_50$ values of $CHCl_3$fraction was found to be <31.3-368.4 $\mu\textrm{g}/ml$. From the incubated methanol extract at $36^{\circ}C, eleven kinds of organosulfuric flavours were predictable by CG-MS performance. The most abundant peak was revealed to be 2-vinyl-4H-1,3-dithiin(1) by its mass spectrum. Further, this extract showed significant cytotoxicities toward cancer cell lies. Silica gel column chromatography of the n-butanol fraction led to the isolation of gitogenin 3-O-lycotetroside (3) along with astragalin (4) and kaempferol 3, 4'-di-O-$\beta$-D-glycoside (5). This steroidal saponin exhibited significant cytotoxic activities ($IC_50$, 6.51-36.5 $\mu\textrm{g}/ml$) over several cancer cell lines. When compound 3 was incubated for 24 h with human intestinal bacteria, a major metabolite was produced and then isolated by silica gel column chromatography. By examining parent and prominent ion peak in FAB-MS spectrum of the metabolite, the structure was speculated not to be any of prosapogenins of 3, suggesting that spiroketal ring were labile to the bacterial reaction. These suggest that disulfides produced secondarily are the antitumor principles.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.883-887
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to develop a new preparation process for chemical transformation of ginseng saponin glycosides to prosapogenins. Ginseng and ginseng extracts were processed under several treatment conditions using ascorbic acid solution. Treating with ascorbic acid at pH 2-3 and above $80^{\circ}C$ increased the ginsenoside $Rg_3$ content of samples to over 3% as compared to other pH levels and temperatures. In addition, ginseng and ginseng extracts that were processed under a high ascorbic acid solution treatment condition (pH 2.0, 5 hr) contained more ginsenoside $Rg_3$ (approximately 16 times) than those processed under a low ascorbic acid solution treatment condition (pH 3.0, 5 hr). The highest quantity of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ (3.434%) occurred when a sample of fine ginseng root extract (AG2-9) was processed with the ascorbic acid solution at pH 2.0 for 9 hr. However, there was no change in the amount of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ when fine ginseng root extracts were processed with ascorbic acid solution at pH 2.0 for over 9 hr. In conclusion, the results indicated that ascorbic acid treatment of ginseng extracts can produce a level of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ that is over 90-fold the amount found in commercial red ginseng.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.305-310
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• 1998

Glucosidic bond at the $C_{20}$ position of the sapogenins was hydrolyzed easily in the lower pH, higher temperature and longer time to give prosapogenins and sugars. The glucosidic bond of saponin at the $C_3\;of\; ginsenoside-Rb_1\;$, which is secondary carbon, was relatively stable due to the low electron density of -0.2. But the bond of saponin at the $C_{20}$ position, which is tertiary carbon with the relatively high electron density of -0.3, was liable to be hydrolyzed even in weak acidic solution by the increase of heating time. On the other hand, fresh and white ginseng contained 4.12 mg/g, 13.05 mg/g of citric acid, 0.68 mg/g, 2.18 mg/g of malonic acid, 1.13 mg/g, 3.68 mg/g of oxalic acid, 2.68 mg/g, 8.62 mg/g of malic acid and 0.13 mg/g, 0.46 mg/g of succinic acid, respectively. Ginseng saponins were very stable in ginseng extract neutralized with sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate corresponding to the equivalent amount of the total organic acid in the ginseng.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2001

In order to increase ginsenoside content, to reduce chemical change, to shorten extracting procedure, new methods of extraction and fractionation of crude ginseng saponin were established and compared for their chemical composition. Those are hot MeOH extraction/n-BuOH fractionation (BuOH method) and hot MeOH extraction/Diaion HP-20 adsorption/MeOH elution (HP-20 method), which are already known methods, and additional three new methods: hot MeOH extraction/cation AG 50W $adsorption/H_2O$ elution/n-BuOH extraction (AG 50W method), cool MeOH extraction/Diaion HP-20 adsorption/MeOH elution (cool extraction method) and direct extraction with EtOAc/n-BuOH (direct extraction method). AG 50W method provided a crude saponin showing the highest content of ginsenosides of 61.5% and the lowest contents of protein and free amino acids of 0.93% and 0.19%, respectively. The protein content was the highest as 14.18% in the crude saponin by HP-20 method, while free sugar content was the highest as 13.5% by BuOH method, indicating that these are factors that lower the rate of ginsenoside in crude saponins by those methods. On the other hand, it was revealed that AG 50W method produced large amount of prosapogenins during the pass through the cation exchange resin (AG 50W) column being strongly acidic. Crude saponin from direct extraction method showed relatively higher composition of ginsenoside $Rg_1$ and Re. The results suggest that contents and composition of ginsenosides and other chemical components in crude ginseng saponin greatly depend on the condition of the extraction and fractionation.