Abstract:

As a monotype genus belonging to Anthericaceae in Dahlgren's system (1985) and endemic in the southwest of China, Diuranthera has been taxnomically discussed. It is known that Diuranthera is morphologically close to Chlorophytum with more than 200 species. From the chemotaxonomic point of view, the chemical studies of D. major and C. malayense have been undertaken. Four new steroidal saponins, chloromalosides A-D, were isolated from C. malayense, and three new steroidal saponins, diuranthosides A-C, were obtained together with chloromaloside A (Figure 2). These saponins show very close resemblance in structure rela-tionship. Chloromaloside A as the major saponin exists in both of them. Moreover, the chemi-cal constituents of C. chinense and C. nepalense were detected on HPTLC by comparing with C. malayense and D. major (Figure 3).

Key words: Diuranthera, Chlorophytum, Anthericaceae, Steroidal saponin, Chemotaxonomy