A Comparative Evaluation of Ginsenosides in Commercial Ginseng Products and Tissue Culture Samples Using HPLC

ABSTRACT A rapid, effective method for the determination of ginsenosides using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was successfully developed and used to evaluate the ginsenoside content of more than 60 commercial ginseng products, roots, and tissue culture samples. The quality evaluations, using the major ginsenosides, Rg1, Re, Rf, Rb1, Rb2, Rc, and Rd as standards, included Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (Chinese ginseng, Korean ginseng), Panax quinquefolius L. (American ginseng), and some products containing ginsenosides purportedly from Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushu, Panax pseudoginseng Wall, and Gynostemma pentaphyllum Thunb Mak. The main ginsenosides, the panaxtriols and the panaxadiols, could be cleanly resolved in a single analysis. The various ginseng samples contain widely differing proportions of the constituent ginsenosides.