Cytotoxic activities of solanum steroidal glycosides.

Cytotoxic activities of 20 steroidal glycosides obtained from Solanum genera plants were examined against various cell lines to provide new evidence as follows: 1) As regarding the sugar linkage, the glycosides possessing a beta-chacotriosyl moiety were the most effective and the presence of the terminal rhamnosyl residue was required for exhibiting strong activity. 2) As for the aglycone, the glycosides carrying a spirostanol aglycone showed the strongest activity and even an aglycone without a sugar linkage presented considerably strong activity.