Galgeun-tang (GGT) is a traditional medicinal formula that is widely prescribed to treat cold, asthma, and hives in Korea. Fermented herbal medicines can be made more effective than normal herbal medicines by increasing the absorption and bioavailability of the active compounds. In this study, we fermented Galgeun-tang to produce bioconversion constituents using Lactobacillus plantarum (GGT144), and found that four peaks were decreased, three peaks were increased and two new peaks appeared in the HPLC-DAD chromatogram. After HPLC-DAD-guided fractionation of the newly-appearing compounds (1 and 5) and the increased (6, 7, and 9) compounds, the structure of the compounds was determined using NMR and MS. Using this approach the compounds were identified to be pyrogallol (1), daidzein (5), liquiritigenin (6), cinnamyl alcohol (7), and formononetin (9), respectively. In addition, the decreased compounds were identified to be daidzin (2), liquiritin (3), ononin (4), and cinnam aldehyde (8) using HPLC-DAD analysis with standard compounds. The high performance liquid chromatography method was used to quantify the nine constituents in GGT and GGT144. All calibration curves of the standard compounds displayed excellent linearity with a R2 〉 0.9968.

Ginseng (Panax ginseng) is frequently used in Asian countries as a traditional medicine. The major components of ginseng are ginsenosides. Among these, ginsenoside compound K has been reported to prevent the formation of malignancy and metastasis of cancer by blocking the formation of tumor and suppressing the invasion of cancer cells. In this study, ginsenoside Rb1 was converted into compound K, via secreted β-glucosidase enzyme from the Leuconostoc lactis DC201 isolated, which was extracted from Kimchi. The strain DC201 was suspended and cultured in MRS broth at 37℃. Subsequently, the residue from the cultured broth supernatant was precipitated with EtOH and then dissolved in 20 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.0) to obtain an enzyme liquid. Meanwhile, the crude enzyme solution was mixed with ginsenoside Rb1 at a ratio of 1:4 (v/v).The reaction was carried out at 30℃ and 190 rpm for 72 hours, and then analyzed by TLC and HPLC. The result showed that ginsenoside Rb1 was transformed into compound K after 72 hours post reaction.