Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2018, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 375-381.doi: 10.1007/s40242-018-7422-9

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Identification and Evaluation of a Panel of Ginsenosides from Different Red Ginseng Extracts with Nootropic Effect

DAI Yulin1,2, ZHANG Ying1, ZHAO Xu3, JEON Youjin2, ZHENG Fei1, MA Li4, YUE Hao1   

  1. 1. Jilin Ginseng Academy, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun 130117, P. R. China;
    2. Department of Marine Life Science, Jeju National University, Jeju 690-756, Republic of Korea;
    3. Department of Hepatology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, P. R. China;
    4. Institute of Mass Spectrometer and Atmospheric Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, P. R. China
  • Received:2017-12-22 Revised:2018-03-29 Online:2018-06-01 Published:2018-04-16
  • Contact: MA Li, YUE Hao E-mail:mali304@yahoo.com;yuehao@ccucm.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the Science and Technology Development Plan Project of Jilin Province, China(Nos.2017161, 20160101152JC).

Abstract: Red ginseng has been gradually discovered to have pharmacological and physiological effects. It is well known that the most important bioactive components of ginseng are ginsenosides. The nootropic effect of ginsenosides from nine different red ginseng extracts was evaluated here. Nine groups of mice were perfused with different concentrations of nine red ginseng extracts, respectively, and two groups of mice with distilled water. The nootropic effect of ginsenosides on mice was evaluated with behavior tests and a biochemical indicator study. The extracts were identified by rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry(RRLC-Q-TOF-MS). Furthermore, principal component analysis(PCA) was used to analyze the contribution of chemical components from different ginseng groups. The extracts with the most and the weakest effective nootropic were found. It is notable that extract processing is a very important factor to decide pharmacological functions of ginseng extracts. As a conclusion, the most effective extract method for ginsenosides has been found. A panel of 13 ginsenosides has been screened out as chemical markers with nootropic effect, which include high level ginsenosides Ra0, Rb1, Rc, Rb2, Rb3, Re, Rd, and Rg1 and low level ginsenosides mRb1, mRc, mRb2, mRd, and F2. Low level ginsenosides were first time to be discovered as possible nootropic compounds. This method may shed light on fast discovery of bioactive compounds of medicinal plants with low level compounds.

Key words: Red ginseng, Ginsenoside, Nootropic effect, Mass spectrometry, Behavior test