Ten New Dammarane-Type Saponins with Hypolipidemia Activity from a Functional Herbal Tea-.

(thumb.) Makino is a functional herbal tea commonly used in Asian countries and regions to reduce blood lipid levels. saponin is the main component, but there are still a large number of components with lipid-lowering activity that have not been found. In this study, 10 novel dammarane-type saponins, (-) and a known one () were isolated from . Ten new compounds were identified and named as yunnangypenosides A-J (-), and another known one () was also obtained. Their chemical structures were determined by MS, NMR spectroscopic analyses. Moreover, the cytotoxicities on human HepG-2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells of these isolates were evaluated, and the results showed that compounds - had no obvious cytotoxicity. Finally, all these compounds were evaluated for their lipid-lowering effect by means of the oil red O staining method. Ten compounds could significantly reduce lipid levels except of , especially exhibite the strongest hypolipidemia activity.