Chemico-pharmacological studies on saponins of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer. I. Chemical part.

For the purpose of clarification of pharmacological actions of ginseng saponins we tried the isolation of ginseng saponins on a larger scale and succeeded in the isolation of eight saponins in a pure state and in sufficient amounts for the pharmacological assay. These eight saponins agreed all completely with the authentic samples of Shibata-Shoji and co-workers in molecular formula of saponins and sapogenins, sugars and TLC. The physical properties of saponins were shown. As other components of ginseng, there were isolated small amounts of panaxadiol, panaxatriol, daucosterol from the first running of column chromatography and mannitol, sucrose and glucose from the ethanol insoluble aqueous extract.