Saponins fungitoxicity

Fig. 2.1 Strucnires of some common saponins. The strucnires of some of the saponins described in the text are shown, including aescin from horse chesnut, avenacin A-1 and avenacoside A from oat, and a-tomatine from tomato. The glucose molecule enclosed in square brackets in the structure of avenacoside A highlights the glucose moiety that is cleaved off by hydrolysis by glycosidases in disrupted oat leaf tissue, leading to the fungitoxic 26-desglucosyl avenacoside A. Redrawn from [94]...

Ginsenosides Are Bidesmosidic Saponins with Mild Fungitoxicity... 

In the following section some of the more important in vitro studies which established the fungitoxicity of glycoalkaloids and saponins are described leading, in the two subsequent sections, to a critical assessment of how these compounds affect fungi at the biochemical level and what contributions they make to the resistance of plants to fungal pathogens. 

Figure 1. Aglycone skeletons of fungitoxic steroidal saponins and Solanum glycoalkaloids.

Alfalfa saponins are hemolytic they also interfere with vitamin E metabolism and are believed to be one of the causes of ruminant bloat." Alfalfa saponins are reported to be fungitoxic, antimicrobial, insecticidal, piscicidal, and taste repellent to rats, swine, and poultry, while attractive to rabbits. 

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