Diosgenin, a steroidal sapogenin, occurs abundantly in plants such as Dioscorea alata, Smilax China, and Trigonella foenum graecum. This bioactive phytochemical not only is used as an important starting material for the preparation of several steroidal drugs in the pharmaceutical industry, but has revealed also high potential and interest in the treatment of various types of disorders such as c...

Costus speciosus (Koen) J.E. Sm. Family: Zingiberaceae is an erect herbaceous plant up to 2 m high with long lanceolate leaves and white fragrant flowers in terminal clusters. The plant flowers during the months of July and August, the aerial parts withering away during the winter season. It has wide distribution in India, occurring throughout the sub-Himalayan tract from Himachal Pradesh to As...

Diosgenin is a natural steroid sourced from plants and exhibits good analgesic anti-inflammatory activity. However, mechanism of action associated with the activity diosgenin not yet delineated. Hence, in present study, we explored on nitric oxide/cyclic guanosine monophosphate/adenosine monophosphate sensitive potassium channels (NO/cGMP/kATP). The role (NO/cGMP/kATP) Wistar rat was studied us...

Purpose: To develop a more green, efficient and low cost process for the extraction of steroidal saponins from Dioscorea Zingiberensis C. H. Wright. Methods: Six kinds of ionic liquids with different cations and anions were evaluated. In addition, the extraction parameters of the ionic liquid based ultrasonic/microwave extraction were studied. In order to quantify the total saponin content accu...

The effects of steroidal sapogenin extract from bitter yam or commercial diosgenin on liver enzyme changes were investigated Diabetic male Wistar rats were fed diets supplemented with 1% steroidal sapogenin extract or commercial diosgenin for three weeks. Plasma glucose levels and the activities of hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase, pyruvate kinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase were assesse...

Diabetic male wistar rats (n=32) were fed diets supplemented with 1% bitter yam steroidal sapogenin extract or commercial diosgenin for three weeks. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), conjugated dienes, lipid profile and the activities of alanine and aspartate transaminases and acid phosphatase were measured in the liver. Diabetic rats (groups B-D) lost weight significantly (p<0.0...

Corresponding Author: Shailendra Kapoor, MD; e-mail: [email protected] 1751 I read with great interest the recent article by Kumar et al1. Interestingly, recent data suggests that Trigonella may exert a number of anti-neoplastic effects besides its anti-hyperglycemic effects. For instance, diosgenin (one of the saponins of Trigonella) is effective in reducing tumor growth in squamous c...

Steroidal sapogenins have shown antiproliferative effects against several tumor cell lines; and their effects on human cancer cells are currently under study. Changes in the functionality on the steroidal structure make it possible to modify the biological activity of compounds. Herein, we report the synthesis and in vitro antitumor activity of two steroidal oxime compounds on cervical cancer c...

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease characterized by symptoms of chronic inflammation and airway structural and functional changes. It affects about 300 million people worldwide and causes 250 000 deaths annually, but its symptoms can be greatly relieved by regular use of inhaled glucocorticoids (GCs). GCs exert their function through interacting with glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). Diosgenin is ...

benign prostatic hyperplasia (bph) is a non-malignant enlargement of the prostate gland. itis a leading disorder of the elderly male population. excessive production of dihydrotestosteronehas been implicated in this pathological condition. steroidal 5α-reductase is a membrane boundnadph dependent enzyme which is responsible for the conversion of testosterone (t) todihydrotestosterone (dht). the...