Abstract
Hydrolysis of Ginseng saponins with crude preparations of hesperidinase, naringinase, pectinase, cellulase, amylase, and emulsin was examined. Among these crude enzymes, crude hesperidinase, naringinase, and pectinase showed rather high activities. Crude hesperidinase hydrolyzed ginsenoside-Rg1 to give its genuine sapogenin, 20(S)-proto-panaxatriol (II) and glucose in almost quantitative yield. Whereas, a mixture of ginsenosides-Rb1, -Rb2, and -Rc gave compound K (=20-O-β-glucosyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol) (III) as a main product with this crude enzyme preparation. Since the purified hesperidinase could not hydrolyze these saponins, the hydrolysis took place with the other glycosidase present in this crude preparation. The crude hesperidinase also hydrolyzed the saponins of Ginseng leaves, and the saponins of the roots of Panax japonicus (excepting chikusetsu saponin-III) to yield the corresponding sapogenins. The diterpene glucoside, stevioside (V), yielded its genuine aglycone, steviol (VI), in almost a quantitative yield with this enzyme preparation.
