Ginsenosides from the fruits of Panax ginseng and their cytotoxic effects on human cancer cell lines

The fruits of Panax ginseng were extracted with 80% aqueous MeOH and the concentrates were partitioned into EtOAc, n-BuOH, and H₂O fractions. The repeated SiO₂ and octadecyl SiO₂ column chromatographies for the EtOAc fraction led to isolation of five ginsenosides. The chemical structures of these compounds were determined as ginsenoside F1 (1), ginsenoside F2 (2), ginsenoside F3 (3), ginsenoside Ia (4), notoginsenoside Fe (5) based on spectroscopic analyses including nuclear magnetic resonance, MS, and infrared. Compounds 2-5 were isolated for the first time from the fruits of P. ginseng in this study. All isolated compounds were evaluated for cytotoxic activities against human cancer cell lines such as HCT-116, SK-OV-3, human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa), HepG2, and SK-MEL-5. Among them compounds 2, 4, and 5 showed significant cytotoxicity on cancer cells. Compound 2 exhibited cytotoxicity on SK-MEL-5, HepG2, and HeLa cells with IC₅₀ values of 82.8, 86.8, and 78.3 µM, respectively. Compound 4 showed cytotoxicity on HCT-116, SK-MEL-5, SK-OV-3, HepG2, and HeLa cells with IC₅₀ values of 24.5, 25.4, 26.3, 22.0, and 24.9 µM, respectively. Compound 5 did on SK-MEL-5 cell with IC₅₀ value of 81.7 µM. The cytotoxicity of ginsenoside 2, 4, and 5 isolated from the fruits of Panax ginseng showed strong inhibition effect against on cancer cells, all of which have a glucopyranosyl moiety on C-3.