( Gynostemma pentaphyllum (Thunb.) Makino)
Gynostema five-lobster (incorrectly: southern ginseng, 5-ginseng ginseng , etc.) belongs to the family of gourds and is famous as the first plant outside the aralkovite family, where ginseng saponins ( Christensen2009gcb ) were found. This is inherently interesting, because even in the aralkovite family panaxosides are out of the genus Panax rarity.
Gynostema is one of the less well-known adaptogens. The Medline database registers more than 200 publications about gynostem. This plant was elaborated by Valentina Razmovska-Naumovská, who led the publication of a review ( Razmovskinaumovski2005cpg ) under the guidance of Professor Roufogalis of the University of Sydney in 2005 about the history, cultivation, content and effects of gynostemy pettilists. It also comes from the information provided here.
Phycochemistry of gynostems
Gynostemma pentaphyllum contains more than 90 different types of damarone saponins, known in phytochemistry under the working name gypenoids . It has been shown that about ten of gypenoids are identical to ginseng panaxosides. In particular, gynostema contains ginsenoside Rb 1 ( gypenoids III ), ginsenoside Rc , ginsenoside Rb 3 ( gypenoids IV ), ginsenoside Rd ( gypenoids VIII ), ginsenoside F 2 , ginsenoside Rg 3 , ginsenoside malonyl Rb 1 and ginsenoside malonyl Rd . Furthermore, gypenoids XVII , IX and XV are identical to Panax notoginseng saponins and Gypsenosides XVII and IX are identical to Panax quinquefolius saponins.
Note on the quantitative comparison of gynostemas and ginseng
Saponins make up about 2.4% by weight of dried gynostem ( Zhang1993amn ). Of this, ginseng saponins make up about a quarter. It is not true, as is argued here or here , that gynostema would contain "more saponins than ginseng". Good red blood cells contain up to 20-24% panaxosides ( Kim2007sqg ). If only saponins were taken into account, gynostema would respond to a young ginseng, in which panaxosides could fall below 2% in a strong shade. But such a comparison does not make sense at all. As I said elsewhere , labeling various adaptogens with the word "ginseng" is incorrect. Gynostema is important to us as an unexpected source of panaxosides, and it has the advantage of ginseng in a faster return on cultivation. With ginseng gynostema is not interchangeable. It is not a "weaker ginseng," but a unique adaptogen with its own use.