Key Lab of New Drugs Design and Discovery of Liaoning Province, School of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, PR China.
Two natural triterpenoid saponins bearing N-acetylglucosamine, lotoidoside D and lotoidoside E, which had been available only from Glinus lotoides growing in Egyptian desert, were facilely synthesized from readily available oleanolic acid. Preliminary pharmacological research showed their antitumor activity against HeLa cell.