ⓒ The Korean Society of Ginseng 375 http://ginsengres.org pISSN: 1226-8453 eISSN: 2093-4947 Research Article J. Ginseng Res. Vol. 35, No. 3, 375-383 (2011) http://dx.doi.org/10.5142/jgr.2011.35.3.375 E-mail: synah@konkuk.ac.kr Tel: +82-2-450-4154, Fax: +82-2-450-3037 * Corresponding author INTRODUCTION Ginseng, the root of Panax ginseng Meyer, has been used as a representative tonic for two thousand years in the Far East countries like Korea, China, and Japan. Now, ginseng is one of the most famous and precious herbal medicines consumed around the world [1]. Although gin- seng exhibits multiple pharmacological actions in vitro or in vivo studies, its mechanisms on various effcacies are still elusive. Recent accumulating evidences show that ginseng saponins (or ginsenosides) are the main active ingredients of ginseng (Fig. 1). Ginseng root contains 3% to 4% of ginseng saponins. Ginseng saponins are es- pecially abundant in fne roots rather than main body of ginseng root. Ginseng saponins are one of glycoside sa- ponins and one of the derivatives of triterpenoid damma- rane consisting of thirty carbon atoms. Each ginsenoside has a common hydrophobic four ring cholesterol-like backbone structure with sugar moieties attached. About 30 different types of ginseng saponins have been isolated Efects of Minor Ginsenosides, Ginsenoside Metabolites, and Ginsenoside Epimers on the Growth of Caenorhabditis elegans Joon-Hee Lee 1# , Ji-Yun Ahn 2# , Tae-Joon Shin 3# , Sun-Hye Choi 3 , Byung-Hwan Lee 3 , Sung-Hee Hwang 3 , Jiyeon Kang 3 , Hyeon-Joong Kim 3 , Chan-Woo Park 3 , and Seung-Yeol Nah 3* 1 Department of Physical Therapy, Daebul University, Yeongam 526-702, Korea 2 Food Function Research Division, Korea Food Research Center, Seongnam 463-746, Korea 3 Ginsentology Research Laboratory and Department of Physiology, Konkuk University College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul 143-701, Korea In the previous report, we have demonstrated that ginsenoside Rc, one of major ginsenosides, is a major component for the restoration for normal growth of worms in cholesterol-deprived medium. In the present study, we further investigated the roles of minor ginsenosides, such as ginsenoside Rh 1 and Rh 2 , ginsenoside metabolites such as compound K (CK), protopanaxadiol (PPD), and protopanaxatriol (PPT) and ginsenoside epimers such as 20(R)- and 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg 3 in cholesterol-deprived medium. We found that ginsenoside Rh 1 almost restored normal growth of worms in cholesterol-deprived medium in F1 generation. However, supplement of ginsenoside Rh 2 caused a suppression of worm growths in cholesterol-deprived medium. In addition, CK and PPD also slightly restored normal growth of worms in cholesterol-deprived medium but PPT not. In experiments using ginsenoside epimers, supplement of 20(S)- but not 20(R)-ginsenoside Rg 3 in cholesterol-deprived medium also almost restored worm growth. These results indicate that the absence or presence of carbohydrate component at backbone of ginsenoside, the number of carbohydrate attached at carbon-3, and the position of hydroxyl group at carbon-20 of ginsenoside might plays important roles in restoration of worm growth in cholesterol-deprived medium. Keywords: Panax ginseng, Caenorhabditis elegans, Ginsenoside metabolites, Ginsenoside epimers, Growth This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Cre- ative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecom- mons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. # These authors contributed equally to this work. Received 08 Jun. 2011, Revised 14 Sep. 2011, Accepted 15 Sep. 2011