감압 건조에 의한 인삼의 유효 생리 활성 증진

This study was performed to maintain the biological activities of fresh ginseng during the drying processes. To obtain this purpose, a balanced low pressure drying process was employed to dry fresh ginseng at low temperature and pressure. This process requires a longer process time than that of hot air drying, but much lower temperature. This system is also economically feasible as it requires lower input energy than freeze drying and maintains similar biological activities such as acidic polysaccharides, because these polysaccharides were known to be heat labile and also resulted in lowering the biological activities of ginseng extract. It was also found that the higher process time and temperature of hot air drying significantly reduced volatile biologically active components such as phenolic compounds, which resulted in lowering the antioxidant activities of ginseng extract. Furthermore, the liquid extracts from ginseng dried by the balanced low pressure drying process increased the growth of human B and T cells, also increased secretion of both IL-6 and TNF-α. These results demonstrate that low pressure drying under balanced air condition could reduce the degradation of ginseng by preventing the breakdown of heat labile biologically active components, not ginsenosides. It could eventually improve the biological activities of fresh ginseng.