Six commercial ginseng products, red ginseng, white ginseng I and II, red ginseng extract, white ginseng extract I and II were extracted with ethyl ether. Total fatty acid composition of the extracted free lipids was analyzed by gas liquid chromatography and digital integrator was used to measure the area of each peak. Crude lipid contents of red and white ginsengs were similiar. Those of red ginseng extract, white ginseng extract I and II were 1.10, 1.13 and 0.40%, respectively. It was found that 22 kinds of fatty acids existed in red and white ginsengs. Among them, 16 kinds of even numbered fatty acids were identified. Linoleic acid in red and white ginsengs was the most abundant. The contents of that in red ginseng, white ginseng I and II were 63.33, 45.55 and 41.06%, respectively. The next most abundant acid was palmitic acid, the contents of which were 11.30, 14.4 and 18.10% for red ginseng, white ginseng I and II, respectively. Major fatty acids for red ginseng extract and white ginseng extract I were linoleic and palmitic acids in the same order of magnitude. Linoleic and palmitic acids for red ginseng extract were 15.93 and 15.71 %, respectively, while linoleic and palmitic acids for white ginseng extract I were 21.94 and 19.15%, respectively. However, white ginseng extract II contained only 9.21% of linoleic acid and 16.13% of palmitic acid which was the major fatty acid.