Structure and biological activities of the polysaccharides from the leaves, roots and fruits of Panax ginseng CA Meyer: An overview

Panax ginseng CA. Meyer, with thousands of years of history, has been known as a valuable traditional Chinese medicine. The plant has been valued for its important biological and chemical perspectives and its use in the treatment of a variety of pathological conditions and illnesses have been documented in ethnobotanical reports. Modern pharmacological experiments have proved that ginsenosides is the most active ingredients. Most recent interest has been focused on the ginsenosides to explore the pharmacological mechanisms of P. ginseng. Whereas it is difficult to make significant progress to elucidate the underlying mechanism by which P. ginseng take effect only by ginsenoside. As we know, ginseng contains multiple constituents, such as ginsenosides, essential oil, polysaccharides and peptides, and especially more and more attentions have been cast on ginseng polysaccharides by medical scientists and nutritionists due to their various important biological activities. Therefore the aim of present review is to give a comprehensive summary of information regarding the chemical constituents and biological effects of polysaccharides form the leaves, roots and fruits of P. ginseng to help us to take action for future study in this discipline. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All, rights reserved.