New furostanol saponins from Smilax aspera L. and their in vitro cytotoxicity.

The occurrence of the two new cis-fused A/B rings furostanol saponins (25S)-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5β-furostan-1β,3β,22α,26-tetraol-1-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and (25S)-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5β-furostan-1β,2β,3β,5β,22α,26-hexaol and the known compounds (25S)-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5β-furostan-3β,22α,26-triol-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and (25S)-26-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-5β-furostan-3β,22α,26-triol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, trans-resveratrol, (+) catechin and (-) epicatechin in the rhizomes of Smilax aspera is reported. All saponins have been isolated as their 22-OMe derivatives, which were further subjected to extensive spectroscopic analysis. The isolated furostanol saponins were evaluated for cytotoxic activity against human normal amniotic and human lung carcinoma cell lines using neutral red and MTT assays. In vitro experiments showed significant cytotoxicity in a dose dependent manner with IC(50) values in the range of 32.98-94.53 µM.