Qualitation and quantification of specific polysaccharides from Panax species using GC–MS, saccharide mapping and HPSEC-RID-MALLS

The objective of this study was to qualify and quantify the specific polysaccharides in Panax spp. The analyses of specific polysaccharides were performed by using GC–MS, saccharide mapping and high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS) and refractive index detector (RID). Results showed that compositional monosaccharides were the same in different species of Panax and composed of rhamnose, arabinose, galacturonic acid, mannose, glucose, and galactose. Saccharide mapping results showed that glycosides linkages, which existed in specific polysaccharides from Panax spp., were similar. Additionally, the content of specific polysaccharides of P. ginseng, P. notoginseng and P. quinquefolium were 17.9–20.5 mg/g, 11.9–15.0 mg/g, and 9.9–13.3 mg/g, respectively. P. ginseng, P. notoginseng, and P. quinquefolium could be clustered into three groups using both hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results possessed great potential in characterization and content determination of specific polysaccharides in Panax spp.