Abstract
Panax ginseng has high medicinal and health values. However, the various and complex components of ginseng may interact with each other, thus reducing and even reversing therapeutic effects. In this study, we designed and fabricated a novel "nano-ginseng" with definite ingredients, ginsenoside Rb1/protopanaxadiol nanoparticles (Rb1/PPD NPs), completely based on the protopanaxadiol-type extracts. The optimized nano-formulations demonstrated an appropriate size (~110 nm), high drug loading efficiency (~96.8%) and capacity (~27.9 wt %), long half-time in systemic circulation (nine-fold longer than free PPD), better antitumor effects in vitro and in vivo, higher accumulation at the tumor site and reduced damage to normal tissues. Importantly, this process of "nano-ginseng" production is a simple, scalable, green economy process.