The flower buds of Panax (P.) ginseng C. A. MEYER (Araliaceae) have been used as an exhilarant and tonic in the form of health tea in traditional Chinese medicine. As the chemical constituents of ginseng flower, several dammaranetype triterpene glycosides were previously isolated, 2,3) but chemical and pharmacological studies on the bioactive constituents from the flower buds of P. ginseng were uncharacterized. Recently, we have reported the isolation and structural elucidation of dammarane-type triterpene diglycosides and triglycosides named floralginsenosides A-Lb together with 17 known dammarane-type triterpene glycosides including ginsenoside Rd (5) and ginsenoside Re (6). 4,5) As a continuing study on the bioactive constituents of medicinal flowers, 1,4-10) the saponin fraction (n-BuOH-soluble fraction) and ethyl acetate fraction from the flower buds of P. ginseng was found to show protective effects on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal lesions in rats [inhibition (%) at 250 mg/kg, p.o.ϭ 63.0, 86.8, respectively]. From the oligoglycoside fraction, new dammarane-type triterpene tetraglycosides termed floralginsenosides M (1), N (2), O (3), and P (4) were isolated. This paper deals with the isolation and structural determination of four new floralginsenosides (1-4) as well as the gastroprotective effects of the principal dammarane-type triterpene glycosides, ginsenoside Rd (5, protopanaxadiol 3,20-Obisdesmoside) and ginsenoside Re (6, protopanaxatriol 6,20-O-bisdesmoside).
11)Isolation of Floralginsenosides The saponin (n-BuOHsoluble) and EtOAc fractions 4) from the methanolic extract of the flower buds of Chinese P. ginseng inhibited ethanol-induced gastric mucosal lesions in rats, as shown in Table 1. The saponin fraction was subjected to normal-phase and reverse-phase silica gel column chromatography to give nine fractions. Major fractions 6 and 7 were separated by reversephase silica gel column chromatography followed by HPLC to afford floralginsenosides M (1, 0.0023% from the dried flower buds), N (2, 0.0016%), O (3, 0.0055%), and P (4, 0.0090%) together with ginsenoside Rd (5, 1.3%) 12) and ginsenoside Re (6, 2.6%).
13)
Structures of Floralginsenosides