Cytotoxic activitiy of seven hederagenin saponins isolated from the root of Dipsacus asper were investigated in vitro against L1210, HL-60 and SK-OV-3 tumor cell lines by the MTT method. $3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1{ ightarrow}2)-alpha-L -arabinopyranosyl$ hederagenin (2),;$3-O-eta-D­xylopyranosyl-( 1{ ightarrow}3)-alpha-L-Rhamnopyranosyl-(1{ ightarrow}2)-alpha-L -arabinopyranosyl$ hederagenin (6) and $3-O-eta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1{ ightarrow}3)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-( 1{ ightarrow}2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl$ hederagenin (7) exhibited the potent cytotoxicity against the three tumor cell lines with $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 4.7 to 8.7 ${mu}g/mL$, with the exception of compound 7, which exhibited weak cytotoxic activity against SK-OV-3 $(IC_{50};22.5;{mu}g/mL)$. Other compounds did not exhibit any cytotoxic activity $(IC_{50}>30{mu}g/mL)$.