Cardiac glycosides of Erysimum contractum

The cardenolide composition ofErysimum contractum Somm. et Lew. familyBrassicaceae (Cruciferae) has been investigated. The seeds of this plant have yielded strophanthidin, erysimin, erysimoside, erycordin, and new cardiac glycoside which has been called nigrescigenin digitoxoside. It has mp 141–145°C, []_D²⁰+16.0±2° (c 0.75; methanol), C₂₉H₄₂O₁₀. On the basis of chemical transformations and spectral investigations it has been established that the new glycoside is 3--D-digitoxopyranosyloxy-5,11,14-trihydroxy-19-oxo-5,14-card-20(22)-enolide. The total content of cardiac glycosides in the seeds of this plant amounted to 3.2%, including 1.26% of erysimoside.All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of the Chemistry and Technology of Drugs, Kharkov. G. S. Skovroda Kharkov State Pedagogic Institute. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 58–62, January–February, 1991.