RE: Gilbert Arnold

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone!

 

I have in the past steeped sliced red ginseng in room temp water for

approximately 24 hrs. This method of water extraction seems to

resolve the problem of decomposing the ginsenoides and is also

very agreeable to the digestive tract.

Can anybody comment on this form of extraction?

 

Regards

 

Aris Skaliotis

[Guest guest]

I have not worked steamed ginseng.

 

IMO a significant amount of phytochemicals could be left behind. Ginseng is

very sensitive to temperature so I suspect that steaming could hydrolize and

decompose and reformulate some of the phytochemicals. Ginsenosides are similar

to Glycosides; here are some notes;

 

 

" GLYCOSIDES

 

Glycosides, or sugar ethers, are a complex grouping which can be broken down to

yield one or

more sugars (glycones), plus a non-sugar component (aglycones). It is important

to note that

glycosides are not a major classification of phytochemicals, as are alkaloids,

carbohydrates, phenols and terpenoids. However, it is often when a phytochemical

is in its glycosidic form that a

constituent may have a specific therapeutic action. Neucleotide glycosides, in

combination

with particular compounds, create specific glycosides in plants, the distinction

between which is

signified by a C-, S-, N-, or O-. The letters indicate that the formation of the

glycoside is dependent on interaction with Carbon, Sulphur, Nitrogen, or

alcohol/phenol components, respectively (Evans, 281). Given this mutability,

glycosides can occur in any of the major phytochemical classifications, because

a sugar ether can bind itself to molecules in a myriad of

ways. Glycosides are most commonly classified according to the chemical nature

of the aglycone,

and have vast medicinal applications as they are found in almost every

therapeutic class.

 

Some phytochemical groups, such as anthraquinone phenols, normally do contain

glycosides, so

they are nicknamed anthraquinone glycosides. Alcohol glycosides have been used

as antirheumatics and analgesics. Salicin, from Salix spp., is the glycosidic

precursor to what is transformed to salicylic acid in our bodies. Salicylic acid

is an anodyne: Ultimately, salicylic acid was synthesized to become today's

aspirin. Glycosides are soluble in alcohol and water.

 

Known primarily for their laxative actions, anthraquinone glycosides were found

after the aglycones (a non-sugar component) of anthraquinones had been obtained

upon hydrolysis. Both glycones and aglycones of anthracene derivation are

polyphenols containing the red or purple pigment found in senna, cascara, rheum,

and aloe, for example.

 

Flavonoid glycosides are yellow pigments in flowers and plants which have

demonstrated

antiinflammatory, anti-allergic effects, antithrombotic and vasoprotective

properties. These plant

constituents exert antioxidant effects on free radicals in the body. Related to

flavonoid glycosides

are the anthocyanidins and anthocyanins, mentioned under the phenol heading.

 

Lactone glycosides, a.k.a. Coumarin glycosides are very fragrant: they are the

source, for instance, of freshly-mown hay scents (ibid.). Medicinally, coumarin

glycosides have been shown to have hemorrhagic, antifungicidal, and antitumor

activities. The lactone glycoside dicumarol is known as an anticoagulant.

 

Cardiac glycosides, come from triterpenoid groups and their action on the heart

is still under

investigation. It is known, however, that the cardiac glycosides do exert a

specific action on the

myocardial muscle and allay myocardial infarction. Digitalis, from the foxglove

plant, is an allopathic prescription. (Planta Medica, 1993, 539.)

 

Cyanogenic glycosides, which initially contain hydrogen cyanide (HCN) compounds,

are toxic to

unadapted farm animals and humans. However, some have been found to be of

cytotoxic interest in cancer research. Originally, these glycosides were

probably developed so that a plant could defend itself from herbivores. The

cyanide content, referred to as a bound toxin, only occurs in some of the 1000

or so plants which initially produce cyanohydrin upon hydrolysis (Harborne and

Baxter, 84). Detection of the presence of cyanide is accomplished through smell

or by its yellow to brownish-red reaction with moist picrate paper. Prunasin, to

illustrate, is a cyanogenic glycoside occurring in Wild Cherry Bark, a botanical

which has been used since the late 1700's as a cough sedative and medicinal

flavorant (Evans, 538). "

 

A room temperature percolation with a 70% alcohol menstrum will not decompose

ginsenosides.

 

Gilbert

 

>>> <askaliotis 12/16 10:15 PM >>>

askaliotis

 

Hello everyone!

 

I have in the past steeped sliced red ginseng in room temp water for

approximately 24 hrs. This method of water extraction seems to

resolve the problem of decomposing the ginsenoides and is also

very agreeable to the digestive tract.

Can anybody comment on this form of extraction?

 

Regards

 

Aris Skaliotis

 

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