High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Free Sugars in Ginseng and Its Products

Abstract

Free sugars were isolated from ginseng root and its products and analyzed by using high performance liquid chromatogrphy. To isolate free sugars from aqueous sample solution fat-soluble components, crude saponin and protein were removed from the solution by extracting with benzene, water-saturated butanol and 80% ethanol, respectively. Free sugars found from both ginseng root and its products were fructose, glucose, sucrose and maltose, and the only sugar detected from red ginseng root and its products was rhamnose. Major sugar detected from fresh ginseng and white ginseng roots was sucrose, while sucrose and maltose were major sugars of red ginseng root.