Steroidal constituents from Solanum nigrum

Three previously undescribed steroidal constituents including two sterols (1–2) and one pregnane-type steroidal glycoside (6), along with nineteen known ones (3–5, 7–22), were isolated from the 80% alcohol extraction of Solanum nigrum L. Their structures and the absolute configurations were established by analysis of the extensive spectroscopic data (1H/13 NMR, 1H1H COSY, HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY), and/or by comparisons of the experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra with those calculated ones by TDDFT method. Further, a MTT assay was applied to demonstrate that compounds 1–4, 6–12, 18, and 22 exhibited significant cytotoxic activities against SW480 cells, and compounds 1–4, 6–14, and 16–22 showed significant cytotoxic activities against Hep3B cells.