Hydrolysis of Ginseng Saponins and Quantifications of Saponins, Prosapogenins and Sapogenins in Crude Drug Extracts for Quality Contyol

Ginseng saponins have been known as main active principles and are quantified as the index components of ginseng and its products for quality control. However ginseng saponins are easily hydrolyzed in acidic solutions of crude drug preparations. Due to the hydrolysis of saponins in acidic condition, it is generally difficult to determine ginseng saponins In crude drug preparations. Ginseng saponins, prosapogenins and sapogenins of crude drug extracts were quantified by HPLC. Ginseng saponins were quantified by HPLC on $Lichrosorb-NH_2$ column with acetonitrile/water/1-butanol(80:20:10, v/v). Ginseng $prosapogenin-Rg_2$ and $-Rg_2$ were extracted with ethyl acetate from $50\%$ acetic acid hydrolyzates of saponin fractions and quantified by HPLC on $Lichrosorb-NH_2$ column with acetonitrile/water(90:10, v/v). Ginseng sapogenins, panafadiol and panaxatriol, were extracted with diethyl ether from $7\%-sulfuric$ acid hydrolyzates of saponin fractions and quantified by HPLC on ${\mu}-Bondapak\;C_{18}$ column with acetonitrile/methano1/chloroform(83:10:7, v/v). These methods of analyses of sapogenins and prosapogenins were more useful for quality control than those of ginseng saponins in some of crude drug preparations.