North American (NA) ginseng root (Panax quinquefolium) has become of increasing scientific interest because of its immune-enhancing properties. Herein, we have developed a novel approach to synthesize ginseng polysaccharide nanoparticles (NPs) from NA ginseng for enhancing their immunostimulation. Nanoparticles of ginseng polysaccharide were prepared using a microfluidic device and compared to other conventional wet chemical processes including nanoprecipitation and reverse microemulsion. The morphology and size of the NPs were characterized by SEM, TEM, DLS and FTIR. Depending on the experimental conditions, microfluidics was found to provide unimodal polysaccharide spheres down to 20 nm (±4 nm) with very narrow particle size distributions. In addition, the immunostimulating effect of the polysaccharide NPs was investigated on Murine macrophage cell lines, with the results revealing an enhanced production of all proinflammatory mediators in a concentration dependent manner. The proposed microfluidic system has the advantages of ease of fabrication, simplicity, and a fast and low-cost process that is capable of producing ginseng polysaccharide NPs with demonstrated enhancement of immunostimulation of macrophage cell lines.
Keywords: ginseng polysaccharide; macrophage cell lines; microfluidics; nanoparticles; nanoprecipitation.