IDENTIFICATION AND DETERMINATION OF GINSENG SAPONINS, PROSAPOGENINS AND SAPOGENINS FROM CRUDE DRUG PREPARATIONS FOR QUALITY CONTROL

Ginseng saponins have been known as main active principles and analyzed as the index components in ginseng and its products for quality control. But it is generally difficult to analyze the saponins in crude drug preparations. Saponins, Prosapogenins and sapogenins of crude drug preparation were identified by TLC and determined quantitatively by HPLC. $Prosapogemins-Rg_3\;-Rg_2\;and\;{\Delta}^{20}-prosapogenin$ were extracted with ethyl acetate from $50\%$ acetic acid hydrolyzates of saponin fractions and identified by TLC with lower phase of $CHCl_3/MeOH/H_2$ O\65:35:10. v/v)on silica gel plate, and quantified by HPLC on $Lichrosorb-NH_2$ column with $CH_3CN/H_2O(90:10,\;v/v).$ Sapogenins. panaxadiol and panaxatriol. were extracted with ethyl ether from $7\%-sulfuric$ acid hydrolyzates of saponin fractions and identified by TLC with chloroform/acetone(1 : 1 v/v) on silica gel plate. and quantified by HPLC on u - Bondapak $C^{18}$ column with $CH_3CN/MeOH/CHCl_3(83:10:7.\;v/v).$ These analyses of prosapogenins and sapogenins are more useful for quality control than those of saponins in crude drug preparations such as So - Shi - Ho - Tang(소시호탕), Sa - Kun - Ja - Tang(사군자탕), Yook - Kun - Ja - Tang(육군자탕), and In - Sam -Tang(인삼탕)