Androsace integra (Maxim.) Hand.-Mazz. (Primulaceae) is a widely used traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine, which is locally called “Diandimei” or “Gadounabo”. For hundreds of years, this herbal plant has been used to treat edema, anthracnose and furuncle. There are many chemical studies on Androsace genus, such as A. mamillata, A. crenata, A. crispa, plant so far. To fill this research gap, researchers from Chengdu Institute of Biology together with Shanghai Jiao Tong University have successfully isolated a new triterpene saponin, androsacin (1) from the whole plants of A. integra together with two known ones namely ardisiacrispin A (2) and saxifragifolin A (3).
Compounds 1, 2 and 3 are classified as 13, 28-epoxy-oleanan saponins, and the compounds within this category have shown a wide range of biological activities， especially cytotoxic activities This paper described the isolation and structural elucidation of the new triterpene saponin and valued the cytotoxic activities of compounds 1, 2 and 3.
This research has been published in FITOTERAPIA in July 2011 and got supports from National Natural Sciences Foundation of China.
