Aglycones, soyasapogenol A and B showed almost complete
suppression of HT-29 colon cancer cell growth and soyasaponins
might be an important dietary chemopreventive agent against
colon cancer after alteration by microflora [9]. Also, soyasapogenol
B, obtained from soybean saponin, is known to have various
physiological activities, such as anticomplementary platelet aggregation
suppressing effect, preventive and therapeutic activity for
immune diseases and growth suppressing effect on cells derived
from human ovarian cancer, human breast cancer, hela and hep
G2 cells [10–13]. These aglycones are produced by acid hydrolysis
of saponins, but there have been reports of aglycone production
by microorganisms or enzymes. Kudou et al. [14] cultured 158
strains of the genus Aspergillus in a medium containing soybean
saponin and reported that 26 of them had marked soybean saponin hydrolase activity. Watanabe et al. [15] isolated a soybean saponin hydrolase from Neocosmospora vasinfecta var. vasinfecta PF1225, a filamentous fungus that can degrade soybean saponin and generate soyasapogenol B.