A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE POTENTIAL ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF GINSENOSIDES

Ginseng roots are believed to contain over 20 different types of ginsenosides. However, no reports exist on the antioxidant activity of ginsenosides according to their various structures. The present study involves a comparison of the various forms of ginsenosides, a series of derivatives originating from the attachment of different sugar moieties to triterpene dammarane, with respect to their intracellular reactive oxygen species scavenging activity. Among the ginsenosides, Rb-2 and Rc showed the strongest antioxidant activity, followed by (in decreasing order) Rg(2), Rh-2, Rh-1, Rf, Rg(3), Rg(1), Rb-1, Re and Rd. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity ranks of the various forms of ginsenosides were influenced by the types of dammarane, as well as the number of sugar moieties, and substitutive groups. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report evaluating the antioxidant properties of ginsenosides with the goal of determining their structure-activity relationship.