Dynamic Changes in Neutral and Acidic Ginsenosides with Different Cultivation Ages and Harvest Seasons: Identification of Chemical Characteristics for Panax ginseng Quality Control

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 22; no. 5; p. 734
• Main Authors: Liu, Zhi, Wang, Chong-Zhi, Zhu, Xing-You, Wan, Jin-Yi, Zhang, Jing, Li, Wei, Ruan, Chang-Chun, Yuan, Chun-Su
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 04.05.2017; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Cultivation; cultivation age; Ginseng; Ginsenosides; Ginsenosides - chemistry; harvest season; Herbs; High performance liquid chromatography; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Identification methods; Liquid chromatography; malonyl ginsenoside; Panax - chemistry; Panax ginseng; Pharmacology; Principal components analysis; Quality Control; Reproducibility of Results; Rg1/Re ratio; Ro/Re ratio; Seasons; malonyl ginsenoside; quality control; cultivation age; Panax ginseng; harvest season; Rg1/Re ratio; Ro/Re ratio
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules22050734

In this study, dynamic changes in ginsenoside content and ratios in the root were investigated with different cultivation ages and different collection months, using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Our data indicate that changes in ginsenoside Ro and malonyl ginsenosides content were dependent on the ginseng cultivation age ( < 0.05); especially, the Ro content varied from 0.16 to 4.91 mg/g, with a difference about 30-fold. Further, we found that the samples of 5 and 6-year-old had high Ro/Re ratio, whereas two and three-year-old possessed low Ro/Re ratio. Thus, the Ro/Re ratio can be used as a characteristic marker for differentiating the age of the root. The relative content of ginsenosides Rg₁ and Re were affected by the ginseng's harvest season. The Re content was higher than the Rg₁ content in May and June, but lower than the Rg₁ content from August to October. Thus, the Rg₁/Re ratio can be used as a characteristic marker for differentiating the ginseng's harvest seasons. These results indicate that the chemical characteristics of at different cultivation ages and harvest seasons are clearly different, which may cause differences in pharmacological activities and therapeutic effects. In addition, we developed HPLC coupled with hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis methods to identify the cultivation age and harvest season of using characteristic ginsenosides. Our results showed that this method can be used to discriminate the cultivation age and harvest season of