Isolation and Indentification of Steroidal Saponins from Dioscorea zingiberensis Wright

Four known steroidal compounds were isolated from the rhizomes of Dioscorea zingiberensis Wright gathered from Hubei Province. Their structures were identified by means of spectroscopic analyses as Epi-smilagenin[Ⅰ]; 3-O-(β-D glucopyranosyl) diosgenin[Ⅱ]; 3-O-[β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→ 4)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-diosgenin[Ⅲ]; 3-O {β-D glucopyranosyl (1→ 3)-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1 →2)]-β-D glucopyranosyl} diosgenin [Ⅳ].