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Review
. 2020 Apr 2;10(4):538.
doi: 10.3390/biom10040538.

Biotechnological Interventions for Ginsenosides Production

Saikat Gantait  1 , Monisha Mitra  2 , Jen-Tsung Chen  3
Affiliations
Review

Biotechnological Interventions for Ginsenosides Production

Saikat Gantait et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Ginsenosides are secondary metabolites that belong to the triterpenoid or saponin group. These occupy a unique place in the pharmaceutical sector, associated with the manufacturing of medicines and dietary supplements. These valuable secondary metabolites are predominantly used for the treatment of nervous and cardiac ailments. The conventional approaches for ginsenoside extraction are time-consuming and not feasible, and thus it has paved the way for the development of various biotechnological approaches, which would ameliorate the production and extraction process. This review delineates the biotechnological tools, such as conventional tissue culture, cell suspension culture, protoplast culture, polyploidy, in vitro mutagenesis, hairy root culture, that have been largely implemented for the enhanced production of ginsenosides. The use of bioreactors to scale up ginsenoside yield is also presented. The main aim of this review is to address the unexplored aspects and limitations of these biotechnological tools, so that a platform for the utilization of novel approaches can be established to further increase the production of ginsenosides in the near future.

Keywords: bioreactor; cell suspension; hairy root; polyploidy; protoplast.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Major structures of ginsenosides belonging to the 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PPD) and 20(S)-protopanaxatriol (PPT) categories (Structure source: PubChem https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) (Source: unpublished photograph of Saikat Gantait).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biosynthesis of ginsenosides via the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway (inside the cytosol) and the methylerythritol (MEP) pathway (inside plastids) (Concept source: Kim et al. [17]; modified and redrawn by Saikat Gantait).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Diagram showing the enhanced production of ginsenosides through various in vitro biotechnological approaches (Source: unpublished photograph of Saikat Gantait).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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