Saponins from Panax plant

As expected due to chemical instability the number of acyclic peroxides is lower. Most of them occur as plant derived products, but also in soft corals hke Clavularia inflata, hydroperoxides with potent cytotoxicity exist. Interestingly the bioactivity disappeared when the hydroperoxide function was deleted. It must be noted that most of natural hydroperoxides in plants are foimd in the group of saponins from Panax ginseng or Ficus microcarpa, which are used in ethnomedicine in South East Asia. 

A Chinese-Japanese cooperative chemical study 104) of the rhizomes of this plant from Zhaotong, Yunnan at 2100m led to isolation of the oleanolic acid saponins, G-IV, C-IVa, and C-V in yields of 3.4, 2.8, and 3.1%. In this respect, then Zhujie-shen is very similar to Japanese Chikusetsu-ninjin. However, the composition of the dammarane saponin fraction of Zhujie-shen which consisted of Rd (0.04% yield). Re (0.12%), Rgi(0.15%), Rg (0.05%), NG-R2(0.02%, see Chapter VIII-2, Table II) and pseudo-ginsenoside-Fii (PG-Fn, 0.04%, an ocotillol-type saponin from leaves of Himalayan Panax and also from leaves of American Ginseng, see Chapter IX-2), was significantly different from that of the Japanese plant. 

A saponin, 3-0-[p-D-glucopyranosyl(l 6)-(3-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-p-o-glucopyranosyl-3p, 12p, 20 (S)-trihydroxydammar-24-ene (62) isolated from a non-host Chinese traditional medicinal plant, Panax notoginseng caused motility inhibition and subsequent death of A. cochlioides zoospores... 

Nature Most ginseng products are derived from plants of the genus Panax that contain multiple triterpenoid saponin glycosides (ginsenosides). Siberian or Brazilian ginseng does not contain these chemicals. 

Recently, Acanthopanax senticosus Harms (Araliaceae), so-called Siberian-Ginseng , and Pfaffia paniculata (Matius) Kuntze (Acantha-ceae), so-called Brazilian-Ginseng , have been sold as health foods or for medicinal use similar to that of real Ginseng. It should be noted that the chemical constituents of these two plants are completely different from those of Ginseng and other Panax spp. and that dammarane saponins could not be detected in either of them. 

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