More modern uses of saponins in biotechnology are as adjuvants in vaccines: Quil A and its derivative QS-21, isolated from the bark of Quillaja saponaria Molina, to stimulate both the Th1 immune response and the production of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) against exogenous antigens make them ideal for use in subunit vaccines and vaccines directed against intracellular pathogens as well as for therapeutic cancer vaccines but with the aforementioned side-effects of hemolysis.
His areas of expertise were keto bases, alcohol bases, derivatives of piperidine, papaverine, lactones and also Digitalis-glycosides.
The genus is named after Cerberus because all its parts are poisonous : they contain cerberin, a cardiac glycoside, a substance that blocks electric impulses in the body (including the beating of the heart).
Mangiferin (a pharmacologically active flavonoid, a natural xanthone C-glycoside) is extracted from Mango at high concentrations from the young leaves (172 g/kg), bark (107 g/kg), and from old leaves (94 g/kg).
Pseudouridine (abbreviated by the Greek letter psi- Ψ) is the C-glycoside isomer of the nucleoside uridine, and it is the most prevalent of the over one hundred different modified nucleosides found in RNA.
However, its anti-sweet activity is less effective than gymnemic acid 1, another anti-sweet compound glycoside isolated from the leaves of Gymnema sylvestre (Asclepiadaceae).