Chemical composition characteristics of Korean straight ginseng products

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 Rb1, Rf, and Rg1 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.