Seventeen steroids from the pith of Tetrapanax papyriferus.

Two new steroidal ketones (1, 2), together with 10 known steroids (3–12) and five known steroidal saponins (13–17), have been obtained from the pitch of Tetrapanax papyrierus. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated as 3β-hydroxystigmast-8, 22-diene-7,11-dione and 3β-hydroxystigmast-8-ene-7,11-dione by IR, HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR techniques. Except for 4, 14, 15, 16, 13 compounds reported in this paper were isolated from Tetrapanax papyriferus for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]