Ginseng flowers stimulate progesterone production from bovine luteal cells

Our previous report first showed evidence that polysaccharides isolated fro m ginseng leaves obtained from Jilin, China possess luteotropic activities. In this study, we made further investigations on the root and flowers of K orean ginseng by means of the same bioassay system described briefly as fol lows. Frozen-thawed bovine luteal cells (1 x 10(5) cells/ml/well) in M199 w ere incubated in 24-well culture plates at 37 degreesC in a 5 % CO2 incubat or. Ten mul of tested drugs with 1, 10 and 100 mug/ml were added into each well. After 4- and 24-hr incubation, the media were harvested and assayed f or progesterone by an enzyme immunoassay. The production of progesterone fr om cells is the indicator for evaluating the action of tested drugs. Result s showed that hot water extracts of ginseng flowers (GF-1) with 10 to 100 m ug/ml significantly increased progesterone production, whereas those from g inseng root (GR-1) could not. Crude polysaccharides (GF-2) isolated from GF -1 is the active component and the small molecules (mw < 10,000 dalton) are excluded, indicating that the ginseng root has no luteotropic activities, but the polysaccharides of ginseng flowers have.