Korean Ginseng Berry Fermented by Mycotoxin Non-producing <i>Aspergillus niger</i> and <i>Aspergillus oryzae</i>: Ginsenoside Analyses and Anti-proliferative Activities

Abstract

To transform ginsenosides, Korean ginseng berry (KGB) was fermented by mycotoxin non-producing Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae. Changes of ginsenoside profile and anti-proliferative activities were observed. Results showed that A. niger tended to efficiently transform protopanaxadiol (PPD) type ginsenosides such as Rb1, Rb2, Rd to compound K while A. oryzae tended to efficiently transform protopanaxatriol (PPT) type ginsenoside Re to Rh1 via Rg1. Butanol extracts of fermented KGB showed high cytotoxicity on human adenocarcinoma HT-29 cell line and hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line while that of unfermented KGB showed little. The minimum effective concentration of niger-fermented KGB was less than 2.5 µg/mL while that of oryzae-fermented KGB was about 5 µg/mL. As A. niger is more inclined to transform PPD type ginsenosides, niger-fermented KGB showed stronger anti-proliferative activity than oryzaefermented KGB.

Effects of fermented ginseng root and ginseng berry on obesity and lipid metabolism in mice fed a high-fat diet

“…Ginseng roots and ginseng berries were fermented with A. niger and A. oryzae , respectively, as described previously [9] . After fermentation, the culture broth was freeze-dried and extracted with water-saturated n -butanol at 80°C After filtration, the filtrate was mixed with distilled water and stewed overnight.…”

“…The upper phase was evaporated, and the residue was degreased with diethyl ether. The ginsenoside contents left in the crude saponin samples were determined by HPLC as described previously [9] .…”

Effects of various ginsenosides and ginseng root and ginseng berry on the activity of Pancreatic lipase

“…GR and GB were fermented with mycotoxin non-producing Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus orzyae, respectively, based on methods presented in the previous study [15]. After fermentation, the culture broth was freeze-dried and extracted with water-saturated n-butanol at 80°C.…”

“…Ginsenosides are the main components responsible for the biological activities of ginseng. Apart from ginseng root (GR), ginseng berry (GB), leaf, and stem were also indicated to contain ginsenosides [14,15] and might show a distinct effect since they possess different ginsenoside profiles [16].…”

“…The dammaranetype ginsenosides can be divided into two types: protopanaxadiol (PPD) and protopanaxatriol (PPT), according to the number of hydroxyl groups joined to sugar moieties by the dehydration reaction [24]. In addition, glycosylated forms of ginsenosides such as Rb1 and Re can be transformed to their deglycosylated forms such as compound K (cK) and Rh1, respectively by acid hydrolysis [25], enzymatic hydrolysis [26], or fermentation [15]. Moreover, deglycosylated ginsenosides are usually considered to show stronger biological activities than the primary forms [27].…”