LAUSR

The ginsenosides Rh2 and Rg3 induce tumor cell apoptosis, inhibit tumor cell proliferation and restrain tumor invasion and metastasis. Despite the Rh2 and Rg3 has versatile pharmacological activities, contents of them in natural ginseng are extremely low. In order to produce ginsenosides Rh2 and Rg3, the saponin-producing capacity of endophytic bacteria isolated from Panax ginseng was investigated. In this work, eighty-one endophytic bacteria isolates were taken from ginseng roots by tissue separation methods. Among them, strain PDA-2 showed the highest capacity to produce the rare ginsenosides, the concentrations of rare ginsenosides Rg3 and Rh2 reached 62.20 mg/L and 18.60 mg/L, respectively. Based on phylogenetic analysis, it was found to the strain PDA-2 belongs to genus Agrobacterium and was very closed to Agrobacterium rhizogenes.