Ginsenosides: A Potential Neuroprotective Agent
Ginseng is the traditional valuable medicinal herb that has been widely used in China for thousands of years. Ginseng is used as energy booster, and it can fortify the spleen to benefit the lungs, nourish fluids, calm the heart, tranquilize the mind, and so on Ginseng has such a good effect, mainly due to ginsenosides. Ginsenosides are the major active ingredients of ginseng and are extracted from roots, fruits, stems, and leaves of ginseng. At present, more than 60 ginsenosides were isolated and identified from Araliaceae family. The basic structure of ginsenosides is similar because almost all ginsenosides contain 30 carbon atoms, and they are arranged in four rings of steroid nuclei According to the difference in the position and quantity of sugar moiety, ginsenosides are divided into three types (Figure 1): A-Panaxadiol group (e.g., Rb1, Rb2, Rb3, Rc, Rd, Rg3, and Rh2), B-Panaxatriol group (e.g., Re, Rg1, Rg2, and Rh1), and C-Oleanolic acid group (e.g., Ro) . Each ginsenoside plays a different pharmacological role. Modern pharmacological experiments have shown that ginsenosides have many biological activities. For example, ginsenosides have good effects in anticancer, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, antiaging, antifatigue, and physiological functions
The main features of nervous system disease are sensation, movement, consciousness, and autonomic nervous dysfunction. Common neurological disorders include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and depression. Nervous system diseases have a great impact on the life and work of the patients and can even lead to life-threatening situations. Nervous system diseases have become another major disease after heart disease and cancer. With the increase of aging population and the pressure of life, the prevalence of nervous system diseases will become higher and higher. Therefore, it is very meaningful to study and treat nervous system diseases. Recently, ginsenosides are becoming more and more concerned in the treatment of neurological diseases. Some studies have shown that ginsenosides do have good preventive and therapeutic effect on neurological diseases . For instance, ginsenoside Rg2 protects against memory impairment via antiapoptosis in rat models with vascular dementia The neuroprotective mechanisms of ginsenosides include antioxidant effect, antiapoptosis effect, estrogen-like effect, restraining the influence of nitric oxide and nitric oxide synthase, and improving mitochondrial dysfunction
