Seasonal variation of saponin contents in Platycodon grandiflorum

Sook Young Lee¹, Yi Zi Yan², Mariadhas Valan Arasu³, Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi³, Sang Un Park^4*

¹Regional Innovation Center for Dental Science & Engineering, Chosun University, 309 Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu, Gwangju, 501-759, Korea ² Agricultural College of Yanbian University, Yanji 133002, Jilin, China. ³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, Addiriyah Chair for Environmental Studies, College of Science, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia ⁴ Department of Crop Science, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-764, Korea.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2013

ABSTRACT: The balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum A. DC) is well known as an ornamental plant and has been used as a vegetable and as a traditional medicinal plant over a long time period. The root parts of Platycodi Radix have rich quantities of saponin glycosides and other important phytochemical constituents. The present study aimed to investigate seasonal variation in saponin contents in P. Radix. Four important saponins—deapio-platycoside E, platycoside E, platycodin D3, and platyconic acid—were analyzed from the roots of balloon flower collected at different growing times. The contents of all of the analyzed saponins varied significantly with the time of growing. A similar trend of accumulation occurred for deapio-platycoside E and platycoside E. The highest concentrations of these two saponins were observed in August. The accumulation trends of platycodin D3 and platyconic acid in Platycodi Radix differed, in that the largest concentrations of these saponins were observed in May. Our results suggest that the time of harvest should take into consideration the accumulation of particular saponins, and that maximum accumulation of these compounds may occur in May or August.

KEYWORDS: Balloon Flower; Saponin; Seasonal Variation; Traditional Medicine

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