Isolation of Toxic Saponins from the Roots of Patrinia scabiosaefolia

During the biological screening of Chinese drugs, it was found that alcoholic extract of the roots of Patrinia scabiosaefolia (Valerianaceae) caused a significant prolongation of hexobarbital-induced sleeping time and elevation of serum transaminase activities accompanied by severe histopathological changes in the hepatic tissues in mice on three day pretreatments. The systematic fractionation of the methanol extract monitoring by bioassay led to isolation of toxic saponins such as $3-O-{\alpha}-{_L}-arabinopyranosyl$ hederagenin $28-O-{\beta}-{_D}-glucopyranosyl\;(1{\rightarrow}6)-{\beta}-{_D}-glucopyranoside$ and its 2'-acetate and $3-O-{\beta}-{_D}-glucopyranosyl\;(1{\rightarrow}3)-{\alpha}-{_L}-rhamnopyranosyl\;(1{\rightarrow}2)-{\alpha}-{_L}-arabinopyranosyl$ oleanolic acid and its $28-O-{\beta}-{_D}-glucopyranosyl\;(1{\rightarrow}6)-{\beta}-{_D}-glucopyranoside$.