. Can. J. Chem. 65, 1384 (1987). The structures of the two major saponins isolated from the starfish Asterias forbesi have been deduced totally by nuclear magnetic resonance methods applied to the undegraded molecules. The structure of forbeside A, 6a-0-{P-D-galactopyranosyl- [Traduit par la revue]In view of the widespread interest (1) in the biological functions, toxicity, and pharmacology of starfish saponins (asterosaponins), we recently embarked on structural studies on the asterosaponins of Asterias forbesi. This is a common species on the Atlantic seaboard and, in particular, in the Bay of Fundy.Shimizu (2) reported antiviral activity in three glycosidic substances (probably asterosaponins) from A. forbesi, and Goldsmith and Carlson (3) demonstrated that analgesic, hypotensive, and anti-inflammatory properties were associated with asterosaponins from this species. An antimitotic substance from the ovaries of'A. forbesi reported by Heilbrunn et al. (4) in 1954 was possibly an asterosaponin.Previous chemical studies on A . forbesi have been limited to the structures of the steroidal products of hydrolysis of its asterosaponin mixture. Shimizu (5) isolated 3P,6a-dihydroxy5a-pregn-9(11)-en-20-one (asterone) from the hydrolysate, and ApSimon et al. (6) reported asterone and the corresponding trio1 (asterogenol) from hydrolysed asterosaponin from the same organism.A methanol extract of specimens collected in Passamaquoddy Bay (August 1984) was chromatographed on an Amberlite XAD2 column to yield a crude saponin-containing fraction, the chlorofonn/methanol (6:4) soluble portion of which was subjected to preparative layer chromatography (plc) on silica gel to provide three fractions, which, after further purification on reversed phase plc and high performance liquid chromatography (hplc), yielded four pure saponins that were designated forbesides A, B, C, and D (-2:3: 1:l). This paper deals with the structures of A and B, which were deduced entirely by nuclear magnetic resonance methods.One-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) methods have yielded limited information for the determination of complete structure and stereochemistry of complex saponins. No systematic method for complete structural analysis has resulted, largely because of the severe resolution problems encountered, since most oligosaccharide proton signals fall within a 2-ppm chemical shift range and substantial overlap of multiplets occurs.In view of this, it has generally been necessary to resort to permethylation and hydrolysis experiments to determine the sugar sequence and the sites of interglycosidic linkage (7-1 1).The whole process is somewhat tedious and also consumes saponin, which is often very difficult to separate and purify and may be better employed in biological evaluation experiments.These difficulties can be overcome by the use of modem high field 2D nmr experiments. The critical requirement is the unambiguous assignment of 'H resonances, especially in the oligosaccharide portion. We have used two-dimensional (2D) nuclear pr...