1. Value-added Ontario Ginseng Products
PDF: Robert Bi
Supervisor: Jesse Zhu
Oct. 2010

2. Backgrounds
Ontario is one of the world’s largest North American ginseng producers
Ginseng has multiple health benefits
Ginseng products have a increasing market especially in far east
Most of the ginseng Ontario exported is ginseng roots, more value-added products are needed to promote the margin profits of Ontario ginseng industry

3. Research Plan Grind to Better Absorption Fine Powder Better Effects
Extraction
Aqueous Extract
Make into New
Dosage Forms
Ethanol
Extract

4. Ontario ginseng is ground with jet mill
Ginseng Powder Product Fine Ginseng Powder
Ontario ginseng is ground with jet mill
Powders with sizes ranging from 13um to 100um were tested and smaller powder showed a higher ginsenosides release

5. Ginseng Powder Product Tablet Preparation

6. Ginseng Powder Product Chewable Tablets
Using those fine powders, chewable tablets were with different flavours were developed for market survey and possible clinical tests
Dissolution curves of the chewable tablets and Jamieson ginseng tablets were compared

7. Ginseng Aqueous Extract Regular & Chewable Tablets
Ontario ginseng is extracted by water and the product was spray-dried to prevent the loss of its biological activity
Regular tablets and Chewable tablets were made and dissolution tests showed that they contain more ginsenoside Re and Rb1 than two Chinese products

8. Ginseng Aqueous Extract Thermal-sensitive Gels
Thermal-sensitive gels – which can transform from solid (or liquid) status at 20℃ to liquid (or solid ) status at 37℃
20℃
37℃

9. Ginseng Ethanol Extract Research Outline
Ontario ginseng is extracted by 70% alcohol and the product was spray- dried to get powder

10. Ginseng Ethanol Extract Regular & Chewable Tablets
Regular tablets and Chewable tablets, which contain up to 60% spray-dried powder, were made for regular consumption.
Dissolution curves of the two products were tested and compared with the dissolution curves of two kinds of fast-release tablets.

11. Ginseng Ethanol Extract Fast-release Tablets
Effervescent tablets: dissolve in a cup of cold water within 10 minutes
Oral dispersible tablets: collapse in a small amount of cold water within 3 minutes
Left: regular tablet; Right: dispersible tablet
0 min mins

12. Ginseng Ethanol Extract Dissolution Curves
Within 5 minutes, fast-release tablets can reach maximum release. However, it takes regular and chewable tablets up to 30 minutes to release most of the ginsenosides in them.

13. FUTURE WORK High Purity Ginsenosides

14. Thank You Robert Bi Tel: 519-661-2111 Ext. 81292 E-mail: ybi8@uwo.ca
Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
The University of Western Ontario
Tel: Ext
Website: