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Three sesquiterpene hydrocarbons from the roots of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (Araliaceae).

Richter R, Basar S, Koch A, König WA

Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King Platz 6, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany.

The volatile constituents of the roots of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer have been investigated after hydrodistillation and analysed by means of different analytical methods. Besides several compounds already known three sesquiterpene hydrocarbons have been isolated from the essential oil. Structure elucidation of the bicyclic panaxene as well as of the tricyclic panaginsene and ginsinsene was performed by MS and NMR. They have been identified as (1R*,2S*,5S*)-2-ethenyl-1(1-methylethenyl)-2,6,6-trimethylbicyclo[3.2.0]heptane (panaxene), (1S*,8S*,11R*)-4,7,7,11-tetramethyltricyclo[6.3.0.0(1,5)]undec-4-ene (panaginsene) und (1R*,6R*,7R*)-3,7,10,10-tetramethyltricyclo[4.3.2.0(2,6)]undec-2-ene (ginsinsene).

Published 28 November 2005 in Phytochemistry, 66(23): 2708-13.
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