Ginsenoside Rd is one of the major ginsenosides in the ginseng root, and consequently has been accepted as one of the marker compounds of ginseng quality. Rd is also an important metabolite in the transformation pathway of PPD-type ginsenosides in the human intestine. There is evidence that Rd exerts beneficial effects in a wide range of pathological conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, immune deficiency, and aging. Specifically, Rd has exhibited an encouraging neuroprotective efficacy in cerebral ischemia in both laboratory and clinical studies. The efficacy of Rd against stroke was first investigated in in vitro models. Three types of injuries induced by hydrogen peroxide, glutamate, or oxygen-glucose deprivation were used to mimic the ischemic insults in the primary neuronal cultures. Rd observably attenuated the cell death and apoptosis following all three ischemia-like insults.
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