1) Purpose of the experiment
Panax ginseng belongs to the ginseng family, Araliaceae, which is widely used for the Chinese medicines. It has a variety of pharmaceutical functions such as tonic, recovery from fatigue, removal of fever, stabilizing blood pressure, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial actions, cardiotonic, anti-cancer, and anti-diabetes. Ginsenosides, one of saponins included in Panax ginseng is involved in most of the function of the ginseng. Rb1 and Rg1 which are representative substances among them have suppressive and excitatory effect on central nervous system, respectively. Rg1 also has anti-fatigue effect. In this study, we undertook to determine the quantities of Rb1 and Rg1 in ginseng products commercially sold in the Aizu area.
2) Experimental procedures
Four commercial ginseng products in grocery and drug stores in Aizu including two dried powders, white hair, and half-dried cut end were subjected to quantitative analyses of Rb1 and Rg1 according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, 17th Edition (JP XVII).
3) Experimental result
4) Discussion
The Japanese Pharmacopoeia, 17th Edition defines the ginseng standard such as the contents of Rb1 and Rg1 more than 0.2 g and 0.1 g/100 g product, respectively. All ginseng products examined in this study contained Rb1 and Rg1 enough for the standard.
References
“Health foods” produced from Ginseng panax as a major material press-released by the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan http://www.kokusen.go.jp/
The Japanese Pharmacopoeia, 17th Edition, pp. 1878-1879