Review
Ginsenoside Re: Its chemistry, metabolism and pharmacokinetics
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* Corresponding authors: Laihua Xie xiela@umdnj.edu - Jingtian Xie jingtian.xie@gmail.com
1 The Ben May Department for Cancer Research, Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
2 Section of Emergency Medicine, Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
3 College of Grain Oil and Food Science, Henan University of Technology, 140 Songshan South Road, Zhengzhou 450052, China
4 Department of Cell Biol & Mol Med, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, 185 South Orange Ave. MSB C609, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
5 Department of Biological Sciences, City Colleges of Chicago, 1900 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago, IL 50512, USA
6 University of Illinois at Chicago, 909 S. Wolcott Ave. Chicago, IL 60612, USA
7 Shangqiu Medical College, 486 W. Beihei Street, Shangqiu, Henan 476000, China
Chinese Medicine 2012, 7:2 doi:10.1186/1749-8546-7-2
Published: 7 February 2012Abstract
Ginsenosides, the bioactive components of ginseng, can be divided into two major groups, namely 20(S)-protopanaxatriol (e.g. Re, Rg1, Rg2, and Rb3) and 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (e.g. Rb1, Rb2, Rc, and Rd). Biological and environmental factors may affect the content of ginsenosides in different parts of ginseng plant. Evidence from pharmacokinetic and metabolic studies of Re demonstrated that (1) the absorption of Re is fast in gastrointestinal tract; (2) Re may be metabolized mainly to Rh1 and F1 by intestinal microflora before absorption into blood; and (3) Re is quickly cleared from the body.