Neuroprotective triterpene saponins from the leaves of .

Two new triterpene saponins, namely notoginsenoside Ng5 () and notoginsenoside Ng6 () were isolated from the leaves of , along with five known ones. Their structures were determined by chemical methods, NMR and X-ray experiments. The absolute configuration of compound with four sugar units was confirmed by single crystal X-ray analysis. Compounds and inhibited PC12 cell damage induced by serum deprivation, and increased cell viability from 58.7 ± 6.7% to 66.7 ± 4.5%, 76.1 ± 6.1%, 64.7 ± 5.2% and 67.2 ± 5.0% at 10 μM, respectively.