Some recent advances in the field of steroidal alkaloids and sapogenins possessing the C27-carbon skeleton of cholestane are reviewed. The paper deals mainly with the following topics (a) The first isolation and structural elucidation of a new type of steroidal saponin with a nitrogen substituted furostane-22a,26-diol as aglycone and a carbohydrate moiety attached to the 26-hydroxy group. (b) The stereochemistry and chemical degradation of Solanum spirosolane alkaloids; the use of the latter as starting materials for the commercial partial synthesis of hormonal steroids. (c) The chemistry of some novel minor alkaloids from Veratrum with a 17β-methyl-18-nor-cholestane skeleton, (d) The stereochemistry of the steroidal alkaloid solano-capsine and some preliminary studies on its synthesis. © 1970, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.