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 exhibitin
g strong activity, 2) As for the aglycone, the glycosides carrying a s
pirostanol aglycone showed the strongest activity and even an aglycone
without a sugar linkage presented considerably strong activity.