Saponins Analysis

Saponins are plant glycosides that can form aqueous or colloidal solutions and soap-like foam. Saponins consist of saponin, sugar and uronic acid or other organic acid. According to the known molecular structure of saponin, saponins can be divided into two categories, one is steroid saponins, and the other is triterpenoid saponins. Saponins are mostly white or milky amorphous powder, a few are crystal, and have irritation to mucosa. Saponins are generally soluble in water, methanol and dilute ethanol, very soluble in hot water, hot methanol and hot ethanol, insoluble in ether, chloroform and benzene. Ginsenoside is the most effective medicinal ingredient of ginseng. There are nearly 30 kinds of ginsenoside, and each kind of ginsenoside has its specific pharmacological function. Soyasaponins have many beneficial physiological functions on human body. In addition to being used as medicine, soyasaponins can also be used in chemical industry as advanced cosmetics, food additives and surfactants. Mass spectrometry is a sensitive analytical technique that enables detection, identification and quantification of a variety of saponins by measuring their mass and characterizing their chemical structure, even at low abundance. MS instruments combine with either high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or electrospray ionization (ESI) to effectively separate organic molecules from complex samples.