The Palmae plant, Borassus flabellifer L. (palmyra palm in English), is widely distributed and cultivated in tropical Asian countries such as Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, etc. The fruit pulp of B. flabellifer has been used in traditional dishes and the sap, which was trapped from the flower part, has been used as a sweetener for diabetic patients. In the previous studies, several steroidal saponins, 2-4) a polysaccharide, 5) and a triterpene 6) constituents were isolated from the fruit pulp, seeds, and young shoot of B. flabellifer. However, the chemical and pharmacologic studies for the flower parts of this medicinal food were left uncharacterized. In the course of our characterization studies on Thai medicinal foods, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] we found that the methanolic extract from the male flowers of B. flabellifer was found to inhibit the increase of serum glucose levels in sucrose-loaded rats. From the methanolic extract, six new spirostane-type steroid saponins, borassosides A-F (1-6), were isolated together with 20 known steroidal glycosides (7-25 and b-sitosterol 3-O-b-D-glucopyranoside) and three known steroids (26, 27, and b-sitosterol). This paper deals with the structure elucidation of borassosides A-F (1-6) from the male flowers of B. flabellifer as well as the inhibitory effects of the methanolic extract and a principal constituent, dioscin (13), on the increase of serum glucose levels in sucrose-loaded rats.Extraction and Isolation The male and female flowers of B. flabellifer (collected in Thailand) were extracted with methanol to give methanolic extracts (12.2% from the male flowers; 11.3% from the female flowers). As shown in Table 1, the methanolic extract from the male flowers of B. flabellifer was found to inhibit the increase of serum glucose levels in sucrose-loaded rats at a dose of 250 mg/kg, p.o. However, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto 607-8412, Japan: and b Pharmaceutical Research and Technology Institute, Kinki University; 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashi-osaka, Osaka 577-8502, Japan. Received October 18, 2006; accepted November 27, 2006; published online November 30, 2006 The methanolic extract from the male flowers of Borassus flabellifer was found to inhibit the increase of serum glucose levels in sucrose-loaded rats at a dose of 250 mg/kg, p.o. From the methanolic extract, six new spirostane-type steroid saponins, borassosides A-F (1-6), were isolated together with 23 known constituents. The structures of borassosides (1-6) were elucidated on the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidences. In addition, the principal steroid saponin, dioscin (13), inhibited the increase of serum glucose levels in sucroseloaded rats at a dose of 50 mg/kg, p.o.