Anti-hyperlipidemic Effects of Red Ginseng Acidic Polysaccharide from Korean Red Ginseng

Abstract

Korean ginseng (the root of Panax ginseng C. A. MEYER) has been known to be a valuable and important folk medicine in East Asian countries, including Korea, China, and Japan for about 2000 years. Panax ginseng is indeed being widely used to treat numerous diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.1) Active constituents with curable features found in most of ginseng species include ginsenosides, polysaccharides, peptides, polyacetylenic alcohols, and fatty acids.2) Of these, ginsenosides, a group of saponins with a triterpenoid dammarane structure, have been studied as major pharmacological components with a variety of effects such as anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antihyperlilidemic, and anti-atherosclerosis activities in ginseng.2-6) Polysaccharide fractions from ginseng have also been explored to understand ginseng's biological roles in pharmacology in terms of immunostimulatory functions. 2)Numerous studies have revealed that polysaccharides from the root of Panax ginseng were known to have mitogenic activities, anti-tumor activities and immunostimulating activities in the cyclophosphamide-treated immunosuppressed mice.2,7-9) It has also been reported that red ginseng acidic polysaccharide (RGAP) from Korean red ginseng was able to up-regulate immunostimulating and antitumor activities for activation of natural killer cells and nitric oxide production in macrophages and in tumor-bearing models. 10,11) Furthermore, acidic polysaccharides from ginseng root were found to reduce the incidence rate of benzo[a]pyreneinduced autochthonous neoplasm. 12)In addition, the anti-metabolic disease effects of polysaccharide fractions have also been explored using in vitro and in vivo experimental models. It has been reported that nonsaponin fractions of Korean red ginseng, are capable of inhibiting epinephrine-induced lipolysis and of stimulating insulin-mediated lipogenesis from glucose in rat adipocytes. 13)Acidic polysaccharides from ginseng root were found to inhibit toxohormone L-induced lipolysis.13) Acidic polysaccharides from Korean red ginseng modulated pancreatic lipase activity, and caused a reduction of plasma triglyceride levels after oral administration of corn oil emulsion to rats, implying the involvement of pancreatic lipase in the reduction of lipolysis.14) Nonetheless, very few polysaccharides of RGAP are known to be effective against hyperlipidemia in vivo. Although several papers have indicated the role of polysaccharide fractions from ginseng play in this regard, the effect of RGAP on lipid metabolism and hyperlipidemic conditions has not been fully elucidated yet. In this study, therefore, we aimed to explore the anti-hyperlipidemic effect of orally administered RGAP from Korean red ginseng with hyperlipidemic rat models. To do this, both Triton WR1339-induced endogenous and corn oil-induced exogenous hyperlipidemic rat models were employed. It has been reported that Triton WR1339 treatment increases serum levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) by u...

Effects of a Purified Saponin Mixture from Alfalfa on Plasma Lipid Metabolism in Hyperlipidemic Mice

“…12,13) Therefore, Triton WR-1339 is widely used to study lipid metabolism and induce acute hyperlipidemia in animals to screen potential hypolipidemic drugs, in particular natural or chemical drugs. 9,14) It is well known that high levels of plasma TC, TG and LDL-C are primary risk factors for hyperlipidemia and related vascular diseases, but high plasma HDL-C level confers a protective effect against their developments. 15) Accordingly, our results demonstrated the effect of PSM on plasma lipid metabolism in hyperlipidemic mice.…”

Effect of Korean Red Ginseng Supplementation on Ocular Blood Flow in Patients with Glaucoma

“…KRG has been demonstrated to be effective in numerous vascular diseases [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. The authors believed that KRG supplementation in open-angle glaucoma patients might be helpful for improving ocular blood flow.…”

“…Red ginseng is reported to be pharmacologically more active than raw ginseng in terms of chemical constituents (Rh4 and Rf2) that are produced in the steaming process [22]. In the past few years, the favorable effects of Korean red ginseng (KRG) have been reported in numerous diseases, including cardiovascular disease [23][24][25][26][27][28], cerebrovascular disease [29], hyperlipidemic disease [30,31], sexual dysfunction [32,33], and Alzheimer's disease [34], though the exact explanation for these effects is not clear.…”

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Whole Red Ginseng Extract and Polysaccharide and Saponin Fractions on Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection

“…However, accumulated results indicate that polysaccharide fraction also has important role for the phar- macological function of ginseng. [14][15][16] TipDCs are considered to have both positive and negative effects: their accumulation in the lung following influenza virus infection increases the number of virus-specific effector CD8 T cells, which are required for viral clearance, but it also enhances immunopathology. 25) Therefore, it has been assumed that appropriate control of tipDC accumulation in the lung could lessen the symptoms of infection.…”