Polysaccharides from the roots of Panax ginseng were extracted by hot water and fractionated by using ethanol precipitation and ion exchange chromatography. Fractions FC (crude extract), F1 (fraction precipitated by ethanol), F1N (fraction unbound to DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B), and F1A (bound fraction) were obtained. Their carbohydrate analyses showed that acidic fraction F1A contains higher amounts of galactose, arabinose and uronic acids, in comparison to FC and F1. Fraction F1N mainly consists of glucose. The inhibition of Helicobacter pylori-induced hemagglutination revealed different inhibitory activities of these fractions. In particular, acidic fraction F1A showed a remarkable inhibitory activity (minimum inhibition concentration was 0.25 mg/ml) among the polysacharide fractions. However, digestion of the fraction F1A with pectinase resulted in a lower molecular weight oligosaccharide fraction F1AP which was non-inhibitory at the concentration of 4 mg/ml. Comparison of inhibitory activities and carbohydrate compositions of isolated fractions indicates that the activity correlated with the contents of galactose, arabinose, and uronic acids. These data suggest that acidic polysaccharides may be responsible for the inhibitory activity.