Enhancement of Anticancer Activity of Low Quality Fresh Ginseng by Lactic Acid Fermentation and High Pressure Processing

Low-quality fresh ginseng was extracted at 240 bar for 20 min and then fermented by Lactobacillus rhamnosus HK-9 at 36 degrees C for 48 h (LFH). At a concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, the LFH extracts had 28.43% and 21.78% lower cytotoxicity towards HEK293 cells and HEL299 cells respectively than the low-quality fresh ginseng and red ginseng extracts obtained from conventional 100 degrees C water extraction. The LFH extract stimulated the highest human immune B and T cell proliferation, with cell counts of 9.33x104 cells/mL and 15.33x104 cells/mL respectively. An in vivo experiment using ICR mice showed that the variation in body weight in ICR mice treated with 100 mg/kg/day fresh LFH ginseng extract was considerably lower than that observed for the control and other groups. The survival time for the group treated with this extract was 35.65% longer than that of the control group. Additionally, this extract showed the highest tumor inhibition activity which was 70.64% for sarcoma-180 solid tumors and the specific secretion of IL-6 and TNF-alpha was increased by up to 35% in response to treatment of cells with the LFH extract. The results revealed that the stronger anticancer activities of the LFH could be caused by enhanced immune activation. It was also found that the high pressure extraction process followed by the fermentation selectively produced some of the ginsenosides that are known to exist only in red ginseng. These results indicate that the extracts from low quality ginseng could improve anticancer activities.