Combination effect of triol‐ and diol‐enriched fraction of ginseng extract on nitric oxide production in vitro

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of triol‐ and diol‐enriched fraction of ginseng extract on nitric oxide (NO) production in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). We investigated the effect of these fractions on NO production at different concentrations (triol‐enriched fraction 240 μg/ml with diol‐enriched fraction 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, or 480 μg/ml). The triol‐enriched fraction significantly increased NO production in HUVEC compared with control. On the other hands, diol‐enriched fraction did not affect NO production. We determined NO production at different time points (5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360min and 24hrs) with triol‐enriched fraction. The ordinate is the ratio of treated to non‐treatment control cell at each time point. NO production at 30 min provided the highest production rate. We examined whether the triol‐enriched fraction regulates the phosphorylation of Akt as determined by Western blot analysis. Treatment of HUVEC with triol‐enriched fraction increased Akt phosphorylation in dose‐dependent manners. Although these findings suggest that triol‐enriched fraction is likely to have beneficial effects on increasing NO production, further study will be required to understand the molecular and biochemical mechanisms for NO signaling cascade.*This work was supported by the second stage of Brain Korea 21 project and grants from CJ Co., Ltd.