| Abstract: | The optimized HPTLC of ginsenosides reported in this paper shows that the recommended solvent system has a higher resolution, greater spot capacity, and better reproducibility by comparison with the established ones in the previous literature. Detection and scanning in the fluorescence mode after visualization with 5% sulfuric acid/EtOH by the dipping technique improved and enhanced the sensitivity by a factor of nine compared to the commonly used absorbance made. Sample pretreatment by an adsorption clean-up step on a small alumina column followed by 1-butanol extraction instead of only a butanol-extraction step made the chromatogram clearer, caused less background contamination, and reduced the tailing of some ginsenosides spots. The ‘peak grouping’ method was effectively used in HPTLC fingerprint identification of various commercial ginseng medicines and the chromatograms of roots of ginseng (white and red; Panax ginseng), American ginseng (P. quinquifolium), and sanchi (P. notoginseng) obtained under recommended condition are perfectly recognizable. |
