Dioscorea hispida (D.hispida) is the most well-known starchy tuber in Malaysia and called 'ubi gadong'. Despite concerns over toxicity effects, the tuber is known to possess therapeutic values due to the presence of bioactive compounds such as saponins. This study was performed to identify the changes in gene expression profiles associated with hepatoxicity in pregnant rat treated with D.hispid...

Studying the biotransformation of natural products by intestinal microflora is an important approach to understanding how and why some medicines-particularly natural medicines-work. In many cases, the active components are generated by metabolic activation. This is critical for drug research and development. As a means to explore the therapeutic mechanism of Dioscorea nipponica (DN), a medicina...

Hot water-insoluble cell wall polysaccharides of immature and mature Dioscorea dunietomin and D. rotundata yam tubers have been characterized in enzymatically destarched flours and were mainly constituted of cellulose followed by hemicellulosic polymers of xylose, galactose, mannose and arabinose. Immature tubers of both species contained a higher proportion of cell wall carbohydrates than matu...

Antioxidant capacities of 56 selected Chinese medicinal plants were evaluated using the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays, and their total phenolic content was measured by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The strong correlation between TEAC value and FRAP value suggested that the antioxidants in these plants possess free radical scaveng...

The aglycon form of the steroidal sapogenin furost -5-ene-3 beta, 22,26-triol, 3 beta- chacotrioside 26 beta-D-glucopyranoside was isolated from cell suspension cultures of Dioscorea deltoidea and its molecular structure was determined by mass spectrometry and 1H and 13C n.m.r. spectroscopy. From kinetic studies and incorporation experiments with [1-14C]acetate it was concluded that the steroid...

Some herbal medications induce acute kidney injury. The acute kidney injuries caused by herbal medications are mild and commonly treated by palliative care. A 51-years-old man who drank the juice squeezed from the raw tubers of Dioscorea quinqueloba (D. quinqueloba) was admitted with nausea, vomiting and chilling. He developed a seizure with decreased level of consciousness. He was diagnosed wi...

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 ...