Specific cytokines have been tested clinically for immunotherapy of cancers; however, cytotoxicity has often impaired their usefulness. Consequently, alternative approaches are increasingly desirable. Dioscorea spp. tuber is a widely used traditional Chinese medicinal herb claimed to confer immunostimulatory activity. In this study, we evaluated Dioscorea as an adjuvant therapy for use alongsid...

Plants with simple architecture and strong constraints on their growth may offer critical insights into how growth strategies affect the tolerance of plants to herbivory. Although Dioscorea praehensilis, a wild yam of African forests, is perennial, both aerial apparatus and tuber are annually renewed. Each year, the tuber produces a single stem that climbs from the ground to the forest canopy. ...

—The apparently aposematic immature stages of a tropical shining leaf beetle, Lema insularis, are described, the host plant is revealed to be Dioscorea mexicana, and observations on the camouflaged larvae of a co-existing herbivore, the sawfly Acorduloceridea compressicornis, and the adults of a co-mimic, Diabrotica godmani, are made.

A rapid and accurate method is described for the determination of diosgenin in Dioscorea conzposita roots. After acid hydrolysis and solvent extraction of the root, pure diosgenin is isolated by thin-layer chromatography, treated with sulphuric acid methanol, and the resultant chromophore is measured by spectrophotometry. Similarly, gas liquid chromatography is used to evaluate statistically th...

From the bulbils of Dioscorea bulbifera L. var sativa, two clerodane diterpenoids, Bafoudiosbulbins F (1) and G (2), together with five known compounds: Bafoudiosbulbins A–C, 3,5,40-trihydroxy-30-methoxybibenzyl, and kaempferol were isolated. Their structures were established by spectroscopic techniques, Y, COSY he basi as revis

The complete genome sequence of Chinese yam necrotic mosaic virus (ChYNMV) consisting of 8,213 nucleotides containing one open reading frame was determined by the transcriptome data generated from Discorea opposita This is the first report of the complete nucleotide sequence of ChYNMV from Dioscorea opposita in the Republic of Korea.

Anomericformoftheproductsfremchitinase-catalyzedhydrolysis was analyzed by iH-NMR spectroscopy. When the chitinase from StreptenoTces griseus was added to the solution of substrate, Ai,AJ,IV,IV;IV-pentaacetylchitopentaitol, fi-anomer was first produced by the enzymatic hydrolysis, and then transformed to oc-anomer by mlltarotatioo. In contrast, the chitinase from Dioscorea qmpesita (yam) produc...

The amide bond in the title compound {systematic name: 3-[(2,4,6-trimethyl-phen-yl)amino-carbon-yl]propionic acid}, C(13)H(17)NO(3), has a trans conformation. In the crystal, two mol-ecules form a centrosymmetric dimer connected by pairs of O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the dimers into a three dimensional network.

Estrogen receptors (ERs) play a pivotal role in adipogenesis; therefore, compounds targeting ERs may also affect fat formation. Recent studies have shown that the Dioscorea plant (commonly called yam) exhibits an antiobesity effect on rodents. However, the active compounds and underlying mechanisms responsible for this effect are not yet fully understood. We evaluated the effects of pseudoproto...

Bilayer tablets of aceclofenac sodium were developed using carboxymethylated white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) starch (CWY) for a fast release layer (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5% w/w), and acid-hydrolyzed bitter yam (Dioscorea dumetorum) starch (ABY) for a sustaining layer (27% w/w). Sodium starch glycolate (SSG) and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) were used as standards. The starches were characteri...