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Dioscorea hispida) as Potential Biocomposite Material
Published in R. Jumaidin, S.M. Sapuan, H. Ismail, Biofiller-Reinforced Biodegradable Polymer Composites, 2020
K.Z. Hazrati, S.M. Sapuan, M.Y.M. Zuhri, R. Jumaidin
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 80% of the world population use D. hispida as a traditional medicine and for producing natural products for maintaining individual health. D. hispida is an herbal plant in tropical Dioscoreaceae families and consists of alkaloids, saponins called “dioscorine,” flavonoid, tannins, carbohydrates, proteins, glycosides, phenol, steroid, and phytosterols [31]. To date, the research has been concerned with diosgenin which is the main element for synthesizing steroid drugs. In other ways, it can be used as a painkiller or rheumatic drug. In the Philippines, tubers are used as expectorant and adjuvant in circumstances of tumors or swollen lymph nodes. They are also used against arthritic and rheumatic pain cases [32]. Burkill et al. reported that tubers are used for external application as medicine for irritated feet or killing worms in harmful areas [33]. The literature has emphasized the importance of Dioscorea species and stated that the mucus from the tubers can heal warts, treat fevers and asthma, and can also be used to poison fish. In 2018, researchers reported that there are a variety of natural medicines used in the local market to cure diabetes, high blood pressure, cough, kidney, injury, and cancer, and also to maintain health [34]. It is believed that natural medicine has numerous advantages based on the type of disease treated [35].
Microbial Transformation of Steroids and Sterols
Published in Nduka Okafor, Benedict C. Okeke, Modern Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2017
Nduka Okafor, Benedict C. Okeke
A major transformation in which interest has grown sharply in recent times is the cleavage of the C17 side chain of sterols. An important source of steroids for the synthesis and production of pharmacologically active steroids used in contraceptives, corticosteroids, geriatic drugs, etc. is diosgenin (Fig. 27.1) from Dioscorea spp. Due to the shortage of diosgenin, interest has shifted to more abundant sterols from phytosterols (i.e. sterols from plants) and cholesterols from animals. The phytosterols include soy bean sterols, mainly β-sitosterol and stigmasterol, and tall oil sterols, mainly sitosterol and campesterol. For these to be used as starting materials for the production of progesterone and other drugs, the C17 side chain must be cleaved, hence the interest.
Circuit-based neural network models for estimating the solubility of diosgenin
Published in Chemical Engineering Communications, 2020
Huichao Lv, Nana Liu, Dayong Tian, Yuwen Zeng, Baoli Li
In the pharmaceutical industry, diosgenin is an important raw material for synthesizing steroidal medicines (Fernandes et al., 2003; Alvarez et al., 2004; Peng et al., 2010). Recent studies have revealed that it has some positive therapeutic benefits such as ameliorating diabetes, enhancing memory function and preventing cancer (Raju and Mehta, 2009; Okawara et al., 2014; Tohda et al., 2017). Diosgenin can be obtained by acidizing dioscorea zingiberensis that has a high content of diosgenin. However, serious pollution limits the application of this method (Liu et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2016). On the other hand, the solvent extraction of active compounds from plant tissue is favored by many researchers due to its affordable cost and simple operation of solvent recovery.
Green production of diosgenin from Discorea nipponica Makino tubers based on pressurized biphase acid hydrolysis via response surface methodology optimization
Published in Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, 2019
Changjie Yu, Zihao Li, Huawu Yin, Guohua Xia, Yuping Shen, Huan Yang, Jing Gao, Xiaobin Jia
Diosgenin is the most preferred precursor for the commercial synthesis of cortisone, pregnenolone, progesterone and many other steroid drugs in the pharmaceutical industry (1). Diosgenin also shows a wide range of bio-activities including against diabetics (2,3), cancer (4,5), thrombosis (6), inflammation (7) and Alzheimer’s disease (8), as well as the functions to regulate renal proximal tubular fibrosis (9), relieve goiters (10) and improve vascular function (11). As an important medicinal compound, more than 4000 tons of diosgenin are demanded annually in the world (12).
Synthesis and mesomorphism of the liquid crystal based on diosgenyl end-capped polycarbonate
Published in Liquid Crystals, 2019
Chaoxian Chen, Zhihao Guo, Xinge Zhang, Xiaofeng Liu, Jianshe Hu, Jing Guo, Zhangpei Chen, Liqun Yang
Nowadays, in order to enhance the application of LC polymers in biomedical fields, different bioactive mesogenic units are being exploited and introduced to polymer structure to develop more LC polymers with diverse properties. Diosgenin, an important kind of steroidal compounds extracted from Dioscorea zingiberensis [44], is a main raw material for the synthesis of sex hormones, steroids and steroids compounds. Due to its multiple biological activities, diosgenin has been traditionally used to treat diabetes [45], hypercholesterolemia [46] and gastrointestinal ailments [47]. Furthermore, diosgenin exhibits anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities on cancer cells in vitro widely [48]. Hence, diosgenin and its derivatives can be introduced into a specific structure as a biologically active LC unit. In our previous works, we successfully synthesised a series of LC monomers based on diosgenin functionalised six-membered cyclic aliphatic carbonate [49], and then corresponding side-chain LC polymers with pendant diosgenyl mesogen were prepared [50] to investigate their self-assembling and pH-responsive behaviours [51]. The results showed that the diosgenyl functionalised side-chain LC polymers could self-organise into different nanostructures as pH value changed, such as nanospheres and nanofibers. This would offer new possibilities in the design of nanostructured organic materials. To the best of our knowledge, there are few researches about the LC based on diosgenyl functionalised polycarbonate, which have been reported. Hence, we synthesised the LC polymers via the ring-opening polymerisation of trimethylene carbonate (TMC), using diosgenin as the mesogenic unit and initiator [52]. However, the diosgenin functionalised poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) presented poor liquid-crystalline properties, due to the low reaction activity of the hydroxyl group of diosgenin.