[Studies on the chemical constituents of Liriope spicata Lour (Thunb), var. prolifera Y.T. Ma].

From the methanol extract of the roots of Liriope spicata Lour (Thunb) var. prolifera Y.T. Ma (Liliaceae) cultivated in Hubei province (China) four steroidal glycorides, tentatively named glycoside I, II, III and IV, were isolated. On the basis of chemical evidences, IR, EI-MS, FAB-MS, 1HNMR and 13CNMR analysis, structures of these glycosides were elucidated and identified as beta-sitosterol(major) and stigmasterol(minor)-beta-D-glucopyranoside (glycoside I), 25(S)-ruscogenin 1-O-beta-D-fucopyranosido-3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (glycoside II), 25(S)-ruscogenin 1-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1----2)-beta-D-xylopyranoside (glycoside III) and 25(S)-ruscogenin 1-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1----2)] [beta-D-xylopyra-nosyl(1----3)]-beta-D-fucopyranoside (glycoside IV), in which both glycoside III and glycoside IV are new steroidal saponins.