Abstract

Panax ginseng is one of the most famous and widely used medicinal plants. It is generally believed that ginsenosides, tetracyclic triterpenoids, are mainly responsible for the pharmacological activities of ginseng. The genes coding for enzymes of biochemical pathways involved in triterpene biosynthesis are of considerable interest in the area of ginseng biotechnology. Upregulation of phytosterol and triterpene production by metabolic engineering of P. ginseng is an attractive strategy to achieve a higher medicinal value. A more detailed understanding of genes involved in saponin biosynthesis could facilitate thegenetic modification of plants with altered or novel saponin content. Here the recent advances on the ginseng biotechnology particularly on the identification and characterization of genes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis pathway were introduced.

Key words: Expressed sequence tags, ginsenoside, Panax ginseng, secondary metabolite, triterpene.