Abstract: Rare ginsenosides, the important active constituents of ginseng, have a variety of pharmaceutical effects such as anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, boost of immunity, etc; hence, they have broad application prospect as medicine and functional food. However, rare ginsenosides contribute to an extremely low proportion of total ginsenosides, and some of them do not exist until being transformed in human intestines. Rare ginsenosides can be produced from major ginsenosides by de-glycosylation and dehydration. Compared to chemical transformation methods, biotransformation strategies (i.e. microbial and enzyme catalysis) have advantages such as high selectivity, mild reaction conditions and less by-product. This review summarizes the latest progress of microbial and enzymatic transformation of ginsenosides with an in-depth discussion of how microbial screening and combination, genetic engineering, solvent engineering and enzyme immobilization affect the transformation efficiency and yield; and also analyzed the potential application value of protein engineering and synthetic biology in improving the catalytic activities, paving the way for large-scale production of rare ginsenosides.

Key words: ginsenoside, biotransformation, microbial transformation, enzymatic transformation, ionic liquid

摘要： 稀有人参皂苷作为人参的重要活性成分，具有抗肿瘤、降血糖、增强免疫力等多重功效，作为药品和功能食品具有广阔的前景。但稀有人参皂苷在总皂苷中含量极低或需经过肠道益生菌转化才能产生，因此工业生产中常通过去糖基、脱水等方法将常见人参皂苷转化为人参皂苷。微生物全细胞催化及酶催化转化具有选择性强、反应条件温和、副产物少等优势，是实现人参皂苷转化的有效手段。为此本文总结了微生物、酶催化转化稀有人参皂苷的最新进展，探讨了微生物筛选及组合、基因工程、溶剂工程、固定化酶等技术对人参皂苷转化效率、产率的影响，展望了蛋白质工程、合成生物学的潜在应用价值，为稀有人参皂苷的规模化生产提供了基础。

关键词: 人参皂苷, 生物转化, 微生物催化, 酶催化, 离子液体