Panaxadiol (I) and panaxatriol (II) yielded on hydrolysis of ginseng saponins with 5% H2SO4/H2O-EtOH (3 : 1) quantitatively reacted with a hundred fold excess of β-naphthoyl chloride in pyridine at room temperature, respectively. Completely stable derivatives, which were obtained as β-naphthoates, were analyzed by a thin-layer chromatography-dual chromatoscanner. This procedure was applied to the evaluation of the commercial ginseng.
