Panax ginseng has been used in
traditional Chinese medicine to enhance stamina and capacity to deal with
fatigue and physical stress. Many reports have been devoted to the effects of
ginsenosides on many in vitro or in vivo experimental systems. The major aim of this work is to investigate the protective effects of 12 individual
ginsenosides including Rb1, Rb3, Rc, Rd, Re, Rg1, Rg2, Rg3, Rh1, Rh2, R1 and
pseudoginsenoside F11, together with the central structures of aforementioned
ginsenosides,
20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PD) and 20(S)-protopanaxatriol (PT), on
hemin-induced
hemolysis of human erythrocytes. This is because
hemin can induce
hemolysis by accelerating the
potassium leakage, dissociating skeletal
proteins and prohibiting some
enzymes in the membrane of erythrocyte. Thus, the structure-activity-relationship (SAR) between
ginsenosides and protective effects has been screened in this in vitro experimental system. It is found that Rh2 and Rg3 intensify
hemolysis in the presence of
hemin, and initiate
hemolysis even in the absence of
hemin. All the other
ginsenosides protect human erythrocytes against
hemin-induced
hemolysis more or less. The overall sequence is Rc>Rd>Re approximately Rb1>Rg1 approximately Rh1>Rb3 approximately Rg2 approximately R1 approximately F11 approximately PT. In addition, the protective effects of PD and PT have been detected, and found that PD promotes
hemolysis appreciably, whereas PT protects erythrocytes efficiently. Moreover, the protective effects of PT
ginsenosides are similar to PT itself, and the protective effects of PD
ginsenosides vary remarkably, demonstrating that the positions of the
sugar moieties make the protective activities of
ginsenosides complicated. Especially,
sugar moiety at 20-position is critical for PD
ginsenosides to inhibit
hemolysis, whereas
hydroxyl group at 3-position is important for PT
ginsenosides. The present result may be useful for understanding the SAR of
ginsenosides.