Characteristic study on the chemical components of Korean curved ginseng products

Dried ginseng (DG) is in fact the representing ginseng product in the worldwide market. Although it is made in various packages depending on the processing method, size and age of DG, basic scientific data reporting the chemical components are limited. In this study, 4-year-old curved ginseng (CG), one of the domestic DG products, was selected for further investigation. Eighty-six samples of 30 and 50 piece-grade CG, which are the most widely distributed in the market, were collected for 5 yr. Their major components, such as moisture, total sugar, acidic polysaccharides, total phenolic compounds, and saponins, were analyzed to figure out the standard quality characteristics. The moisture content of all CG samples was less than 15%. The total water-soluble sugar contents were 22.9% to 47.8% and 23.2% to 49.5% in the 30 and 50 piece-grade CG, respectively. The acidic polysaccharide contents were 3.6% to 6.7% and 2.9% to 6.9% in the 30 and 50 piece-grade CG, respectively. The total phenolic compound content was 0.4% to 0.5% in CG, regardless of the piece-grade. The crude saponin content, which represents the active component of ginseng, was over 2% in all samples. In 30 piece-grade CG samples, the contents of major ginsenosides, Rb1, Rf, and Rg1, were 2.2 to 4.7 mg/g, 0.4 to 1.3 mg/g, and 1.6 to 4.0 mg/g, respectively. The ginsenoside contents in 50 piece-grade CG samples were 2.1 to 3.9 mg/g (Rb1), 0.5 to 1.2 mg/g (Rf), and 1.3 to 3.4 mg/g (Rg1). Overall, since there were relatively high standard deviation and coefficient of variation in all the chemical component contents that were assessed, we found some difficulties in showing the CG standard chemical component characteristics by average, standard deviation, and other statistical analysis factors.