Comparison of the anti-inflammatory effects of different polar ginsenosides on rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease. Traditional ethnic medicine has unique advantages in the treatment of such conditions. Ginsenosides have prominent pharmacological activities, and their anti-rheumatoid effects have been gradually explored, but their mechanism of action is not precisely known. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the therapeutic effects of different polar ginsenosides on RA and to explore the metabolic patterns of ginsenosides in a collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model using untargeted metabolomics based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The efficacy was evaluated by CIA model-related pathological indexes and histopathological parameters. This study provides a new basis for the cultivation of ginseng and the transformation and development of low-polar ginsenosides. Polar ginsenosides changed the urine metabonomics with respect to catecholamine biosynthesis and the metabolism of vitamin B6. In addition to the above changes, carnitine synthesis, phytanic acid peroxisomal oxidation, oxidation of branched chain fatty acids, malate-aspartate shuttle, and glucose-alanine cycle were also altered by less-polar ginsenosides. This experiment has shown that less-polar ginsenosides can alleviate inflammatory symptoms to a greater extent than polar ginsenosides.