. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 1.

Published in final edited form as: Biochim Biophys Acta. 2010 Mar 6;1802(12):1219–1229. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2010.02.011

Table 1.

Some relevant cardenolides and their substituents.

Compound	Steroid substituent¹						Sugar at C3

	1β	5β	11α	12β	17α	19
Ouabain	OH	OH	OH	H	H	CH₂OH	Rhamnose
Ouabagenin	OH	OH	OH	H	H	CH₂OH	None
Digoxin	H	H	H	OH	H	CH₃	Digitoxose (3)
Digitoxin	H	H	H	H	H	CH₃	Digitoxose (3)
Digitoxigenin	H	H	H	H	H	CH₃	None
Rostafuroxin	H	H	H	H	OH	CH₃	None

The common cardenolides have a 5-member singly-unsaturated lactone ring in the 17β position, but Rostafuroxan has a doubly-unsaturated furane substutent at this position.