A simple method for isolation of Gypsophila saponins for the combined application of targeted toxins and saponins in tumor therapy.

Saponinum album (SAP) is a complex mixture of triterpene saponins from Gypsophila paniculata L. Although most of the saponins from SAP are characterized, the separation of pure saponins remains time consuming and costly, involving different chromatographic techniques. Recently it was shown that SAP drastically enhanced the cytotoxicity of a chimeric toxin consisting of the N-glycosidase saporin and human epidermal growth factor (Sap-EGF) in cell culture experiments. In view of a potential therapeutic use of the coadministration of SAP and Sap-EGF in tumor therapy, an economic and time-saving method for the isolation of pure saponins from the crude SAP mixture in high amounts is required. In this study we isolated a single saponin by a simple chromatographic method. The isolated saponin was characterized by mass spectrometry and was shown to enhance the cytotoxicity of Sap-EGF on HER14 cells.