Thermal Degradation of Glycosides, I. Degradation of Typical Triterpenoid and Steroid Glycosides

The thermal degradation of triterpenoid and steroid glycosides is described. By mere heating on a melting point apparatus, typical triterpenoid and steroid glycosides (involving cardiac and basic steroid glycosides) afford their aglycones and prosapogenins with the cleavage of their sugar–aglycone and sugar–sugar linkages similar to acid and enzymatic hydrolysis. Some genuine aglycones which were labile towards acids were also obtained by this procedure. The pyrolyzed products were isolated by chromatography, and the structures were elucidated by spectroscopic evidences.