Diosgenin:Uses,Functions and Synthesis

Diosgenin is a white needle-like crystal or light powder, as the active ingredient of Chinese medicine steroidal saponin, widely existed in legumes and dioscorea.

Functions

Diosgenin is a precursor of many steroidal drugs synthesis, an important raw material for artificial synthesis of steroid hormones and steroidal contraceptives. It has good anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic and other effects, also has a certain neuroimmune and behavioral improvement effects on neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).[1]

Uses

Diosgenin is a major component of spice fenugreek. From the ancient ages, this spice has been used as an antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antidiabetic, anticancer, hypocholesterolemic agent. Because of its antiinflammatory activities, diosgenin is a potential agent for various chronic diseases including cancer such as breast cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia. Diosgenin is shown to inhibit inflammatory markers such as COX-2, iNOS, MMP-3, MMP-13, thus, making diosgenin a suitable agent for chemo-preventing agents. Additionally, diosgenin was found to induce apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma and prostate cancer and inhibit migration of human breast cancer in vitro. Diosgenin also enhanced ROS-dependent autophagy and cytotoxicity in chronic myeloid leukemia cells via inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway.

Synthesis

Using yam-like plants as raw material, the mixture was hydrolyzed with HCl. The hydrolysate was washed with water until neutral, and the residue was dried to obtain a hydrolyzed product. This product was then continuously extracted with gasoline for 8 hours. The gasoline extract was concentrated, crystallized, filtered, and dried to obtain diosgenin.

Reference

[1] NANNAN HUANG. Diosgenin: an important natural pharmaceutical active ingredient[J]. Food Science and Technology, 2021. DOI:10.1590/fst.94521.