Extraction of Diosgenin, a Bioactive Compound from Natural Source Dioscorea alata Var purpurae

Diosgenin (Figure 1) is a bioactive steroidal sapogenin belonging to the triterpene group and is of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry [1]. It is the aglycone formed by the hydrolysis of saponin dioscin (Figure 1), a compound found in Dioscorea spp. [2]. It serves as an important starting material for the production of corticosteroids, sexual hormones, oral contraceptives as well as other steroidal drugs via hemisynthesis [3]. Different chemical and biological protocols are reported to extract diosgenin [4]. Past research shows various methods analyzing Diosgenin such as microscopy [5], spectrophotometeric [6], GLC [7], HPLC [8] and HPTLC [9].