Catalog of Herbs
James A. Duke in Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Once widely used in root beer, sarsaparilla extracts are used now (up to 13 ppm) in baked goods (up to 0.2%), beverages, candies, and frozen dairy desserts. Sarsaparilla is advertised as an aphrodisiac in the U.S. Such ads have resulted in sarsaparilla’s inclusion in the tea I called the “Root Booster” composed of roots of ginger, ginseng, sarsaparilla, and sassafras, all reputed aphrodisiacs. Sarsaparilla saponins are reported to facilitate body absorption of other drugs.42
Abies Spectabilis (D. Don) G. Don (Syn. A. Webbiana Lindl.) Family: Coniferae
L.D. Kapoor in Handbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants, 2017
Medicinal properties and uses — The roots are an excellent blood purifier, diuretic, tonic, and diaphoretic. They are given in loss of appetite, dypepsia, fever, skin diseases, syphilis, leukorrhea, genitourinary diseases, and in chronic cough.3,50 A paste of the root is applied on swellings and rheumatic joints. Used as a good substitute for true sarsaparilla which is obtained from the genus Smilax.46
Protective effect of sarsasapogenin in TNBS induced ulcerative colitis in rats associated with downregulation of pro-inflammatory mediators and oxidative stress
Published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 2021
Deepa S. Mandlik, Satish K. Mandlik, Snehal Patel
Sarsasapogenin (Figure 1) is a steroidal sapogenin found in many Smilax species, including Smilax officinalis, Smilax aspera, Smilax ornata, Smilax china, Smilax febrifuga and Smilax aristolochiifolia [20]. It is also present in the Anemarrhena asphodeloides rhizome, which is used in Chinese traditional medicine. It is used as a starting material for the development of steroid hormones. It has a wide range of pharmacological properties, including anti-depressant and anti-tumor. Hu et al. investigated the memory-enhancing role of SG by raising the concentration of the muscarinic receptor in the brains of memory-deficient rat models [21]. The anti-inflammatory function of SG obtained from S. officinalis is equivalent to that of traditional anti-inflammatory drugs such as dexamethasone [22]. Psoriasis, arthritis, and rheumatism are also treated with it [23–25]. Liu et al. recently investigated the effects of SG in rats in the early stages of diabetic nephropathy [26]. Ingawale et al. have studied the anti-asthmatic effect of SG in combination with FC in ovalbumin-induced airway inflammation in mice [27].
Sarsasapogenin and fluticasone combination improves DNFB induced atopic dermatitis lesions in BALB/c mice
Published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 2021
Deepa S. Mandlik, Satish K. Mandlik, Snehal S. Patel
Sarsasapogenin (Figure 1) is a steroidal sapogenin found in numerous Smilax species, including Smilax china, Smilax officinalis, Smilax aspera, Smilax ornata, Smilax febrifuga and Smilax aristolochiifolia [23]. It is also present in the Anemarrhena asphodeloides rhizome that is utilized in Chinese traditional medicine. Also used as a starting product for the development of steroidal hormones. It has a wide range of pharmacological properties, including anti-depressant and anti-tumor properties. SG improves memory by raising the number of acetylcholine receptors in the brains of the memory-deficient model in the rat [24]. The anti-inflammatory function of SG obtained from S. officinalis is equivalent to that of traditional anti-inflammatory drugs such as dexamethasone [25]. Psoriasis, arthritis, and rheumatism are also treated with SG [26–28]. The effect of SG has also been evaluated in rats in the early stages of diabetic nephropathy [29]. Ingawale et al. [30] have studied the effect of combining SG and FC in ovalbumin convinced bronchial asthma in a mice model [30].
The history of natural progesterone, the never-ending story
Published in Climacteric, 2018
In 1938, Russell Earl Marker found that the sterol sarsasapogenin from the Sarsaparilla plant could be converted into progesterone. However, sarsaparilla was expensive and, continuing his research, he isolated in 1941 a sterol, named diosgenin, extracted from the Dioscorea species of a yam growing wild in Mexico; this sterol could also be converted into progesterone using a technique which has since become known as the ‘Marker degradation’15. After using a friend’s lab to convert diosgenin into three kilograms of progesterone, he formed in 1944 the Syntex Company in Mexico City with two partners. Because of the low cost of Russell Marker’s progesterone, it later became the preferred precursor to cortisone and, by 1951, Syntex developed the first oral contraceptive from progesterone16.
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