| Summary: | Objective: Tu Jia ethnomedicine is a unique medical system inherited and adhibited by Tu Jia minority living in central-south China. Panax japonicus C. A. Mey. (Bai San Qi, 白三七) is recognized as an effective and rare medicinal plant to treat weakness, fatigue and rheumatism in Tu Jia ethnomedicine. This paper is to discover more substance evidence for the application of Tu Jia ethnomedicine. Methods: Column chromatography and preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied for isolation and purification; 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, 1H-1H COSY, HSQC and HMBC NMR spectra were applied for structure identification; Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolim (MTT) assays were applied for cytotoxicity evaluation. Results: Totally 12 known compounds were isolated by column chromatography and preparative HPLC from rhizomes of Panax japonicus C. A. Mey. (Bai San Qi, 白三七). Structures of these compounds were identified by their NMR spectra. All the 12 compounds were triterpenoid saponins. Five of them were oleanolic acid type, and the remaining 7 were dammarane type. Eleven compounds were assayed for their cytotoxic activity against Hep G2 human liver cancer cell lines and BGC-823 human gastric cancer cell lines. Three of the 11 showed relatively dominant cytotoxicity against these cell lines. Conclusions: A total of 12 known compounds have been identified from Panax japonicus C. A. Mey. (Bai San Qi, 白三七); NMR spectra of compounds with similar skeletons showed regular characteristics; 3 compounds showed relatively dominant cytotoxicity against Hep G2 and BGC-823 cancer cell lines, and the result can be valued as weak while setting the taxol as a positive control. Keywords: Triterpenoid, Saponin, Cytotoxicity, Araliaceae, Panax japonicus C. A. Mey. (Bai San Qi, 白;三;七;), Tu Jia ethnomedicine
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