Extract Monographs

Asian Ginseng

Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) has the reputation of being the most important herb used in Chinese medications, “the ultimate elixir of life, a symbol of strength and long life, the source of happiness, a tonic and an aphrodisiac”. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Panax ginseng can reinforce qi, improve circulation, increase blood supply, revitalizes, aid recovery from weakness after illness and strengthen the immune system [1].

The active constituents of ginseng roots, known as ginsenosides (triterpenoid saponin glycosides), contribute primarily to the pharmacological effects. More than 30 ginsenosides have been identified in Panax species, but Rb1, Rb2, Rc, Rd, Re and Rg1 are the six major ginsenosides that represent over 90% of the total ginsenoside content in ginseng roots, with Rf used for identification of Asian ginseng.

In the current market, Asian Ginseng is widely added to food, beverages, cosmetics and natural health products. Many organizations, such as Health Canada, the FDA and other Natural Health Product Regulatory Affairs departments are demanding the identification of the herbs and botanical products. Therefore, for the Natural Health Product industry to meet these requirements, rapid analysis methods are crucial for the identification of Panax species to minimize adulterated products on the market., as well as to evaluate the quality of the commercial ginseng and products. Due to the fact, ginsenosides tend to be distributed throughout the Panax plant and reside in roots, stems, leaves and flowers, some Ginseng extract products come from ginseng leaves instead of roots.

Based on our research, the ratio of ginsenosides is different in the various plant parts, so the ginsenoside profile can effectively identify the different ginseng species and ginseng plant parts [3, 4]. To accommodate this, CPC has successfully developed a rapid and effective method to fully separate seven major ginsenosides in Asian Ginseng for both quantitative and qualitative analysis in less than 5 minutes with Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C18 column [3]. Therefore, by combining the reliable source of the raw herb and advanced processing method, the individual and total ginsenosides contents of our Canphy® Asian Gienseng P.E. have been strictly controlled in every batch. They meet USP standard with the ratio of Rb2 and Rb1 more than 0.4 and the total ginsenosides content is strictly controlled at 10%.

Asian-Gin-Graph1
Asian-Gin-Graph2
Asian-Gin-RO

References

[1] State Commission of Chinese Pharmacopoeia of People’s Republic of China, Part Ⅰ, Chemical Industry Press, Beijing, 2005, PP. 205-206.

[2] Ma Yuan-Chun, Zhu J, Benkrima L, Luo M, Sun LH, Sain et al.. A comparative evaluation of ginsenosides in commercial ginseng products and tissue culture samples using HPLC. Journal of Herbs, Spices and Medicinal Plant (1995) 3, 41-50.

[3] Ma yuanchun, Luo mai, Lynn Malley, Monique Doucet. Distribution and proportion of major ginsenosides and quality control of ginseng products. Chinese Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (1996) 1, 11-20.

[4] Jie Ma, Yuan-Chun Ma, Daniel Wang, Fei Fei Hou, et al. Simultaneous Quantification of Panax and Epimedium Species Using Rapid Resolution Liquid chromatography (RRLC). Natural Product Communications (2011) 5, 581-586.

Let's Get Started

Contact Us