Studies on the saponins from the leaves of Panax ginseng*
ZHU Tingting1, LI Fu2, CHEN Bing2, DENG Yun1**, WANG Mingkui2 & Li Lianhong3
1Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 611137, China
2Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
3Chengdu Must Biotechnology Limited Company, Chengdu 610045, China
Abstract This research aimed to study the saponins of the leaves of Panax ginseng and to search for the undiscovered saponins. Normal and reversed phase silica gel column chromatography combined with preparative HPLC were used for the purification of individual saponins. Altogether 12 triterpene saponins were isolated and identified as vina-ginsenoside R3 (1), vina-ginsenoside R4 (2), vina-ginsenoside R8 (3), ginsenoside Rk1 (4), ginsenoside Rg5 (5), 5, 6-didehydroginsenoside Rd (6), ginsenoside Rb1 (7), ginsenoside Rb2 (8), ginsenoside Rc (9), ginsenoside Re (10), ginsenoside Rd (11), ginsenoside Rg1 (12), respectively. It was the first time that compounds 1-6 were isolated from the leaves of this plant.