Zhujie Shen

P.japonicus C. A. Meyer = P.pseudo-ginseng Wall, suhsp. japonicus (Meyer) Hara (79) [Japanese name Chikusetsu-ninjin or Tochiba-ninjin, Chinese name Zhujie-shen, Zhao-shen or Zhujie-sanchi, wild throughout Japan and also in southern China (50)]... 

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. 

This Panax species is distributed from Tibet to Yunnan at higher altitudes (2500—4500 m) than Zhujie-shen and is commercially available in China as a traditional drug. The internodes of its long creeping rhizome are... 

Morita, T., R. Kasai, H. Kohda, O. Tanaka, J. Zhou, and T. Yang Chemical and Morphological Study on Chinese Panax japonicus C. A. Meyer (Zhujie-shen). Chem. Pharm. Bull. (Japan) 31, 3205 (1983). 

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