Research Article
Extraction of Diosgenin, a Bioactive Compound from Natural Source Dioscorea alata Var purpurae
Heena J Shah and Lele SS*
Food Engineering and Technology Department, Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai, India
- *Corresponding Author:
- Professor of Biochemical Engineering
Food Engineering and Technology Department
Institute of Chemical Technology
Matunga, Mumbai, 400019, India
Tel: +91-22-33611111
Fax: +91-22-33611020
E-mail: shah.heena146@gmail.com, dr.smita.lele@gmail.com
Received date: May 26, 2012; Accepted date: August 21, 2012; Published date: August 27, 2012
Citation: Shah HJ, Lele SS (2012) Extraction of Diosgenin, a Bioactive Compound from Natural Source Dioscorea alata Var purpurae. J Anal Bioanal Tech 3:141. doi: 10.4172/2155-9872.1000141
Copyright: © 2012 Shah HJ, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Diosgenin, a commercially important bioactive sapogenin, extracted from tubers belonging to Dioscorea species, is used as a precursor in the manufacturing of sex hormones, oral contraceptives and other pharmaceutically important steroidal drugs. Diosgenin content of two Indian variety viz., D. deltoidea and D. prazeri ranges from 0.32 - 1%. With the view to commercially exploit a new source of diosgenin, a lesser explored tuber D. alata Var purpurae (purple yam), from Western Ghats, India was studied. The diosgenin content was determined from tuber (fresh and dried) and callus of D. alata by acidic hydrolysis of the glycosides and extraction with an organic solvent, followed by the HPTLC analysis. HPTLC mobile phase was optimized to toluene: ethyl acetate 7:3 v/v using the PRISMA model and diosgenin content was found to be 0.078, 0.133 and 0.048% respectively after extraction for 8 hrs in alcohol.