PURPOSE: To provide a new saponin compound exhibiting excellent hepatopathy- suppressing action and low side effects and useful as an agent for the treatment of hepatitis.

CONSTITUTION: This agent is composed of the compound of formula I. The compound of formula I can be produced by extracting the rhizome of HANASUGE with hot 50% methanol, distilling out the methanol, suspending the residue in water, successively fractionating with dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and 1-butanol, concentrating the obtained 1-butanol fraction, fractionating by silica gel column chromatography and purifying the obtained compound of formula II by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. The compounds of formula I and formula II are active components for the treating agent for hepatitis and the administration dose is 10-500mg/day by oral administration and 5-500mg/day by parenteral administration based on 1kg of the body weight.