ИСТИНА

Ginseng is an old Chinese medicine which belongs to the group of products which stimulate the non-specific resistance of an organism and build up general vitality. Panax ginseng has been used in Asia for more than 5000 years as a tonic and a panacea. The pharmacological properties of Ginseng are generally attributed to its triterpene glycosides, called ginsenosides. Up to now more than 600 ginsenosides have been isolated from Panax species and most of them exhibit two types of aglycone moieties: protopanaxadiol and protopanaxatriol. Due to the fact that Ginseng is a world popular phytomedicine, huge quantity of work has been carried out during the last 40 years in order to develop analytical methods for the identification, quantification and quality control of ginsenosides in raw plant materials, extracts and marketed products. One of the main goals of these researches was the differentiation of the ginsenosides patterns between the different Panax species. Moreover, studies of changes in ginsenosides composition due to different traditional processing of P. ginseng roots such as white and red ginseng have been undertaken. The problem is the pure compounds of the ginsenosides are not available to researches in large quantities. That is why the methods of standard-free analysis of ginsenosides are in high demand. New approach of qualitative analysis of ginsenosides in challenging matrices was developed on the basis of high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Using the extracts from samples of ginseng roots, tea and other commercial products the validation of the approach was made. Analysis of extracts was carried out using a reversed-phase chromatography with SB-C18 sorbent. For compounds identification, electrospray ionization and quadrupole/linear ion trap mass-spectrometer in different modes were used. The meticulous study of the fragmentation of ginsenosides in the linear ion trap and its application for analysis of these compounds was made.