Four new steroidal components from Smilacina henryi and their cytotoxic activities

Abstract Four new steroidal components ( 1 − 4 ) along with two known analogues ( 5 − 6 ) were obtained from the roots and rhizomes of Smilacina henryi . The components’ structures were determined as (25 S )-5 α -spirost-9(11)-ene-3 β , 17α, 21-triol ( 1 ), (24 S , 25 S )-5 α -spirost-9(11)-ene-3 β , 17 α , 24-triol ( 2 ), (25 S )-5 α -spirost-9(11)-ene-3 β , 17 α -dihydroxy-12-one ( 3 ), 5 α -cholest-9(11)-ene-3 β , 26-dihydroxy-16, 22-dione ( 4 ), (25 S )-5 α -spirostan-9(11)-en-3 β , 17 α -diol ( 5 ), (25 S )-5 α -spirostan-9(11)-en-3 β , 12 β , 17 α -triol ( 6 ) by physicochemical properties and spectroscopic methods. In addition, all of the compounds had their cytotoxic activities tested against U87MG and HepG2 tumour cells by the MTT method. Compounds 3 and 6 showed moderate inhibitory effects against the U87MG cells with IC 50 values of 15.5 μ M and 27.2 μ M, respectively, while compounds 1 − 6 showed different inhibitory effects against the HepG2 cells with IC 50 values of 9.8 to 56.3 μ M, respectively.