The beneficial health promoting effects of ginseng from vitalizing the body to enhancing long life have been well explored very rapidly in the past few years. Up till now many
ginsenosides have been discovered for their marvelous
therapeutic effects. However during past three years, a novel ginseng compound has been discovered, called
gintonin, that differs from other
ginsenosides on the basis of its signal transduction and chemical nature.
Gintonin has been widely studied for its anti-
Alzheimer's disease activities and other neuropathies. However, its anti-inflammatory activity remained unexplored. In our study we have reported for the first time the anti-inflammatory activity of
gintonin on RAW 264.7 cells. We found that
gintonin potently suppresses the
nitric oxide production without any cytotoxicity at given doses and also efficiently suppressed the levels of proinflammatory
cytokines. Moreover, it mediaes its signal transduction via MAPK and NF-κB pathways and revives the levels of mir-34a and mir-93. These findings are valuable for the anti-inflammatory effects of this new compound with particular reference to
microRNA involvement in the ginseng family.