## 3 Discussion
These results showed that several ginsengides were found to be the main characteristic components of each product. From the data of the S-plot, we identified the characteristic components, which were generally present in the four ginseng products, as follows: WG (M-Rb1, M-Rb2, M-Rc, Re, Rg1), TG (Rb2, Rc, Rd, Re, Rg1, unknown compounds), RG (Rb1, Rb2, Rc, Rd, Re, Rg1), and BG (Rd, Rk1, Rg5, Rg3). Among these processed ginseng products, WG had three MGRs such as M-Rb1, M-Rb2, and M-Rc as its main components. The malonyl residue, which is linked to the glucose in MGRs, is thermally unstable and it easily hydrolyzed by steaming treatment. As WG is manufactured by dehydration in sunlight and with no heat treatment, MGRs are well preserved in WG, compared to other products. Finally, ginseng contents were mainly different according to the type of ginseng product analyzed. Hence, it is critical to identify and quantify ginsengides in order to evaluate the quality of WG, TG, RG, and BG. By using an in-house library, a number of ginsengides were identified as follows: WG (\(n=26\)), TG (\(n=28\)), RG (\(n=34\)), and BG (\(n=36\)). Furthermore, Table 1 represents the quantitative data of these ginsengides. Above all, we focused on the ginsengides that were identified as the main components of each product in the S-plot. For the quantification of three MGRs (M-Rb1, M-Rb2, M-Rc) found as main components of WG, it was necessary to use MGR standards. However, commercially obtaining the MGR standard samples was difficult, due to its thermal weakness and difficulty of separation. Thus, in our laboratory, we isolated these MGRs by ourselves, and quantified them in each sample. In the S-plots of TG, five ginsengides (Rd, Rc, Rb2, Re, Rg1) were found as its main components. However, RG and BG had higher amounts of these ginsengides than TG. Hence, they were relative markers for their differentiation from other samples. From the quantification, RG had the highest levels of the five ginsengides (Rg1, Re, Rb1, Rb2, Rc) found in the S-plots, and of other ginsengides (gRf, nR2, nR2-R, Rf, Rb3). BG also had the highest levels of the three ginsengides (Rk1, Rg5, Rg3) found in the S-plots. As these ginsengides have various pharmaceutical properties, the profiling of ginsengides should be performed to determine the pharmacological utility of each ginseng product. For instance, TG and RG could display various properties such as anti-cancer (Rc, Rb2), anti-diabetes (Rd, Rb2, Re), and anti-inflammation (Rd, Rb2, Re, Rg1) [17; 32; 33; 34; 35]. Furthermore, Rk1, Rg5, and Rg3, which mainly exist in BG, could display the activities of platelet anti-aggregating, anti-inflammation, and anti-cancer [36; 37; 38; 39]. BG had the highest number of ginsengides among the four ginseng products, and it had five unique ginsengides (CK, CY, Rh2, Rk2, Rh3). CK, which is known as the metabolite of Rb1, has anti-cancer [40], anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective effects [41]. Although other ginsengides such as Rh2 and Rh3 showed anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects [42], there were still no reports on the biological activity of CY and Rk2. In further studies, to characterize in detail the properties of processed ginseng products, quantification of high- or low-abundance ginensoides is required, as well as isolation and application of specific ginensoides to find the biological activity.