A new simple and fast approach to analyze chemical composition on white, red, and black ginseng

Abstract The pharmacological and biological activities of steam-activated ginseng are greater than those of non-steamed ginseng. And also, the chemical profiling varies with different processing. To track the chemical constituents of white ginseng (WG), red ginseng (RG), and black ginseng (BG), ginsenosides and amino acids were comparatively analyzed in WG, RG, and BG. Twenty-three ginsenosides and twenty-nine amino acids were fast identified based on multiple ultra-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) methods. The results showed that during the steaming process of ginseng, ginsenosides transform into constituents of low polarity by hydrolysis, isomerization, and dehydration at C-20, and hydrolysis also occurs at C-3 or C-6. Relatively less attention has been paid to amino acids in WG, RG, and BG. The amino acids profiling of WG, RG, and BG showed the contents of amino acids were decreased during the steaming process. This simple and fast method provides possibility to monitor multiple components for the quality control and global evaluation of ginseng products during processing.