Effective manufacturing methods of various ginsenosides, including Rg3, Rh2 and studies on anti-cancer effects against various cancer cells using in vitro and in vivo tests

Abstract

Although the biological effects of various ginsenosides, such as Rb1, Rg3, Rh2, and compound-K, have been examined, there is almost no commercial product of single or combined ginsenosides that has been developed for limited therapeutic uses. This is because of the difficulty in preparing the main ingredient (i.e., dried ginseng composed of approximately 2% of the ginsenosides, from various species), and the insufficient efficacy of each ginsenoside.Despite the large number of studies that have been conducted on a variety of ginsenosides, sufficient phar-macological activity has not been demonstrated with a single ginsenoside. Thus, the approach described here may provide evidence of the efficacy of ginensoside-based medicines. Ginsenosides with protopanaxadiol and protopanaxatriol groups, ginseng or red ginseng, which have very low levels of Rg3 and Rh2 and various phar-macological activities, are desired for efficient mass production. This study confirms that ginsenosides have potential to be used as an anticancer substance through in vitro and in vivo test of various cancer cells, especially lung cancer cells. This study also reveals effective and creative mass-manufacturing methods of rare ginsenosides that show meaningful medicinal effects and sets up various methods of manufacturing, separation, refining and analyses of ginsenosides to verify anticancer effects. The study set up solvent systems and analyzing conditions which can analyze twenty-five standard samples of gin-senosides through minimum legibile HPLC at one time. The first step for mass production of effective ginseno-sides Rg3 and Rh2 was to extract and refine the ginsenosides mixtures (GM1) from ginseng, then Rb1(351 mg/g) and Rd(86mg/g) were verified among the ginsenosides forming the mixture. The second step was to obtain GM2 containing Rg3(241 mg/g) and Rh1(173 mg/g) after acid hydrolysis and the refinement of GM1. The third step was to obtain GM3 containing F1(161 mg/g) and F2(30.5 mg/g...