Ginseng is any of eleven different varieties of short, slow growing perennial plants with fleshy roots. Ginseng is believed to restore and enhance normal well-being and has become one of the most popular herbal remedies in the world today.
The following main ginseng health benefits have been suggested:
Energy provider
Ginseng may help with stimulating physical and mental activity among people who are weak and tired. The mental and energy boosts from ginseng are smooth and not like that from coffee. Ginseng has been shown to reduce fatigue and increase energy in cancer patients. It’s one of the more useful herbal remedies for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Cognitive function
Ginseng may improve thinking ability and cognition. Ginseng works as a brain booster and protector. It can improve mental performance and ability to concentrate. It also prevents memory loss, protects against age-related mental decline and improves memory in stroke patients.
Cancer prevention
There may be substances in ginseng that have anticancer properties and protective against some kinds of cancer including lung, liver, pancreatic, ovarian, and stomach cancers.
Ginseng species contains ginsenosides, polysaccharides, amino acids, peptides, polyacetylenic alcohols and fatty acids. Growing evidence has demonstrated that these components possess physiological effects in biological systems, in which ginsenosides are the principal pharmacologically active component. More than thirty ginsenosides have been identified and are broadly classified into three categories: the 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PPD) (Rb1, Rb2, Rb3, Rc, Rd, Rg3, Rh2, Rs1), the 20(S)-protopanaxatriol (PPT) (Re, Rf, Rg1, Rg2, Rh1), and the oleanolic acid group (Ro). Moreover, several rare ginsenosides, such as the ocotillol saponin F11 (24-R-pseudoginsenoside) and the pentacyclic oleanane saponin Ro (3,28-O-bisdesmoside) have also been identified.
Also, ginsenosides can be categorized into either pro-oxidative or anti-oxidative according to structural configuration. Ginsenosides with no sugar moieties attached to the C-20 position of the triterpene dammarane act as pro-oxidants (e.g. Rg3, Rh2, and Rg2), while a mere glucose attached to the C-6 position, but not C-20, rendered the ginsenoside an antioxidant (e.g. Rh1).
The adopted nomenclature of ginsenosides is based on the distribution where “R” stands for the root and the chromatographic polarity from the least polar to the most polar one alphabetically (i.e., “a” is less polar than “b” and so forth). The content and composition of ginsenosides in ginseng can vary depending on the species, age, cultivation methods, part of the plant, preservation method, season of harvest, and extraction method. For examples, ginsenoside-Rg2 and -Rf can only be found in the Asian ginseng and are absent from American ginseng. Recently, ginsenoside-Ra1, -Ra2, -Ra3, -Rg4, -Rg5, -Rg6, -Rk1, -Rs1 and -Rs2 have further been identified in the red ginseng. In Asia, red ginseng is more expensive than white ginseng due to the presence of the additional ginsenosides and supposed better medical efficacy.
Ginsenosides are triterpene saponins. Most ginsenosides are composed of a dammarane skeleton (17 carbons in a four-ring structure) with various sugar moieties (e.g. glucose, rhamnose, xylose and arabinose) attached to the C-3 and C-20 positions. The extra hydroxyl group or sugar derivatives at the C-6 position of the PPT defines the major structural difference from the PPD. Conformationally, all ginsenosides have a flat core A-B-C-D fused ring. Thus, sugar substitutes on ginsenosides neither collide with each other nor cause significant steric crowding. The side-chain structures of ginsenosides are relatively flexible and are highly dependent on the solvent and local environments.
Related Products:
| CAS Number | Product Name | Description |
| 41753-43-9 | Ginsenoside Rb1 | Ginsenoside Rb1 shows anti-oxidative damage ,anti-renal interstitial fibrosis, immunostimulatory and anticancer effects. |
| 11021-13-9 | Ginsenoside Rb2 | Ginsenoside Rb2 is a 20(S)-protopanaxadiol glycoside extracted from ginseng. It shows potent antioxidant and anticancer biological activities. It inhibited invasiveness to the basement membrane of endometrial cancer cell lines Ishikawa. |
| 11021-14-0 | Ginsenoside Rc | Ginsenoside Rc is a steroid glycoside, which is found exclusively in the plant genus Panax (ginseng). It has properties that inhibit or prevent tumors growth. It may have effects that prevent or limit the development of breast cancer. |
| 52705-93-8 | Ginsenoside Rd | Ginsenoside Rd is a natural triterpenoid compound found in the roots of Panax ginseng C. A. Mey. |
| 83480-64-2 | Ginsenoside Rd2 | Ginsenoside Rd is a primary constituent of the ginseng rhizome and the administration of ginsenoside Rd significantly increased the reduced GSHPx and glutathione reductase activity. |
| 52286-59-6 | Ginsenoside Re | Ginsenoside Re shows effective antidiabetic activities via significant antioxidant efficacy, particularly in the prevention of diabetic microvasculopathy. |
| 52286-58-5 | Ginsenoside Rf | It inhibits Ca2+ channels in mammalian sensory neurons through a mechanism requiring G-proteins, whereas a variety of other ginsenosides were relatively ineffective. It might be useful in itself or as a template for designing additional modulators of neuronal Ca2+ channels. It induces G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells through the mitochondrial pathway. |
| 22427-39-0 | Ginsenoside Rg1 | Ginsenoside Rg1 protects against arthitis through osteoclast differentiation inhibition. Ginsenoside Rg1 exhibits anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. |
| 52286-74-5 | Ginsenoside Rg2 | It has a neuroprotective effect against glutamate-induced neurotoxicity through mechanisms related to anti-oxidation and anti-apoptosis. It inhibits nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-mediated Na+ influx and channel activity. It might regulate the 5-HT3A receptors that are expressed in Xenopus oocytes. It may have properties that inhibit or prevent the growth of tumors. |
| 14197-60-5 | Ginsenoside Rg3 | It shows a synergistic antitumor effect with cisplatin in cisplatin-resistant bladder tumor cell lines. It possesses an ability to inhibit the lung metastasis of tumor cells, and the mechanism of their antimetastatic effect is related to inhibition of the adhesion and invasion of tumor cells, and also to anti-angiogenesis activity. |
| 186763-78-0 | Ginsenoside Rg5 | Ginsenoside Rg5, a main constituent isolated from red ginseng, exhibits anti-inflammatory property as in LPS-stimulated alveolar macrophages it inhibited the expression of proinflammatory cytokines including IL-1β and TNF-α, as same as inflammatory enzyme |
| 147419-93-0 | Ginsenoside Rg6 | Ginsenoside Rg6, extracted from steamed notoginseng, exhibited significantly potent inhibitory effects on IL-12 p40 production in LPSstimulated BMDCs. |
Reference:
Leung K W. Ginseng pharmacology: Signaling pathways of ginsenoside-Rg1 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells[M]. HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY (HONG KONG), 2006.