**Enhancement of Minor Ginsenosides Contents and Antioxidant Capacity of American and Canadian Ginsengs (***Panax quinquefolius***) by Pu** ffi**ng**

**Min-Soo Kim 1, Sung-Joon Jeon 1, So Jung Youn 2, Hyungjae Lee 2, Young-Joon Park 3, Dae-Ok Kim 1, Byung-Yong Kim 1, Wooki Kim 1,\* and Moo-Yeol Baik 1,\***


Received: 4 October 2019; Accepted: 4 November 2019; Published: 5 November 2019

**Abstract:** The e ffects of pu ffing on ginsenosides content and antioxidant activities of American and Canadian ginsengs, *Panax quinquefolius*, were investigated. American and Canadian ginsengs pu ffed at di fferent pressures were extracted using 70% ethanol. Pu ffing formed a porous structure, inducing the e fficient elution of internal compounds that resulted in significant increases in extraction yields and crude saponin content. The content of minor ginsenosides (Rg2, Rg3, compound K) increased with increasing pu ffing pressure, whereas that of major ginsenosides (Rg1, Re, Rf, Rb1, Rc, Rd) decreased, possibly due to their deglycosylation and pyrolysis. Furthermore, 2,2--azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, amount of Maillard reaction products, and acidic polysaccharides content increased with increasing pu ffing pressure, but 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity did not. There was no substantial di fference in the results between pu ffed American and Canadian ginsengs. Consequently, these results sugges<sup>t</sup> that pu ffing can be a promising novel technology for processing *P. quinquefolius* to achieve higher levels of minor ginsenosides and obtain value-added products.

**Keywords:** antioxidant activity; ginsenosides; *Panax quinquefolius*; pu ffing
