The closely related plant families of Caryophyllaceae and Illecebraceae are reviewed
for their saponins. An overview with special attention on the contained sapogenins
and their linkage of sugar moieties is provided. Gypsogenin, Gypsogenic acid and Quillaic
acid turned out to be widely spread in the family of Caryophyllaceae. Gypsogenin is
found in 46% of the examined species. The occurrence of Gypsogenin is 1.5-fold higher
than that of Gypsogenic acid or Quillaic acid, which occur with the same frequency.
The genus Gypsophila L. of the family of Caryophyllaceae has the highest accumulation
of Gypsogenin. 75% of the examined species comprehend Gypsogenin. It occurs 3-fold
more often than Gypsogenic acid or Quillaic acid in this genus. In contrast all examined
species of the family of Illecebraceae lack of Gypsogenin. Since certain bisdesmosidic
Gypsogenin-based saponins of Gypsophila paniculata L. recently showed the ability
to drastically amplify the toxicity of cellular membrane-impermeable type I ribosome-inactivating
proteins (type I RIPs), the analysis reveals other possible natural sources for further
testing [1, 2, 3].
References: 1. Weng, A. et al. (2008) Chem.-Biol. Interact. 176:204–211.
2. Weng, A. et al. (2009) Chem.-Biol. Interact. 181:424–429.
3. Hebestreit, P. et al. (2006) Toxicon 47:330–335.
