Liquid-chromatographic profiling of Saponinum album (Merck)

Saponinum album (Merck) is a complex composite of triterpene saponins. It was shown that Saponinum album (Merck) dramatically enhances the toxicity of the N-glycosylase saporin from the seeds of Saponaria officinalis L. as well as the toxicity of a saporin based anti-tumor toxin. This study was intended to chromatographically profile the saponins present in Saponinum album (Merck) in order to identify saponins that determine the cytotoxicity enhancing properties of Saponinum album (Merck) on saporin. For this purpose a liquid-chromatographic profiling (HPLC) followed by ESI-TOF-MS analysis and evaluation of cytotoxicity enhancer effects of saponins from Saponinum album (Merck) was performed. This is the first study describing a liquid-chromatographic profiling of saponins from Saponinum album (Merck). Ten different saponins were isolated. There was a lot of variation observed in the cytotoxicity enhancing properties of different isolated saponins, 8 out of 10 isolated saponins showed an enhancer effect on the toxicity of saporin. Based on these results it was concluded that the cytotoxicity enhancer effect of Saponinum album (Merck) is not attributable to a single, activity determining saponin.