Chemical composition characteristics of Korean straight ginseng products

Abstract Background The present study was conducted to provide basic data for standard quality characteristics by grade, and for the establishment of new grading criteria for Korean straight ginseng (SG). Methods The major constituents (moisture, total sugar, acidic polysaccharide, phenolic compound, crude saponin, and ginsenosides) in SG with skin products were analyzed to examine the standard quality characteristics. Results Five-year-old first-grade 15- and 25-piece grade SG products were collected over a period of 5 years and analyzed. The total water-soluble sugar content was 35.2% and 35.4% for the 15- and 25-piece grades, respectively, and the acidic polysaccharide content was 4.1% for the 15-piece grade and 4.6% for the 25-piece grade. Both the 15- and 25-piece grade products had 0.5% total phenolic compounds. The amount of crude saponin was 3.2–5.5% in all samples. The amounts of the major ginsenosides Rb 1 , Rf, and Rg 1 were 4.7, 1.1, and 3.6 mg/g, respectively, in the 15-piece grade and 3.6, 1.0, and 3.0 mg/g, respectively, in the 25-piece grade. Conclusion Overall, the coefficient of variation was over 15% for the major constituent contents, indicating that it was difficult to standardize the constituent contents using the mean value.