Production of diosgenin from yellow ginger (Dioscorea zingiberensis C. H. Wright) saponins by commercial cellulase

Abstract

A commercial cellulase was first assessed to be effective in hydrolyzing glycosyl at the C-3 and C-26 positions in steroidal saponins from yellow ginger (Dioscorea zingiberensis C. H. Wright) to diosgenin, a very important chemical in the pharmaceutical industry. The effect of different parameters on enzyme hydrolysis was further investigated by systematically varying them. The highest yield was achieved when the hydrolysis ran at 55°C and pH 5.0 with an enzyme to substrate ratio of 15 × 10(3) U/g. The biotransformed products identified using TLC and HPLC confirmed that the cellulase was capable of releasing diosgenin from steroidal saponins. Moreover, the biotransformation process was explored by LC-MS and LC-MS/MS analysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis together with 40 % of the original sulphuric acid used increased the diosgenin yield by 15.4 ± 2.7% than traditional method. Therefore, the commercial cellulase may serve as a promising tool for industrial diosgenin production and for further use in saponin modification.

Extraction Optimization of Water-Extracted Mycelial Polysaccharide from Endophytic Fungus Fusarium oxysporum Dzf17 by Response Surface Methodology

“…The rhizomes of D. zingiberensis have a high content of diosgenin, which is an important precursor of semi-synthetic steroidal drugs in the pharmaceutical industry [13]. In our previous study, water-extracted mycelial polysaccharide (WPS), exopolysaccharide (EPS), and sodium hydroxide-extracted mycelial polysaccharide (SPS) of F. oxysporum Dzf17 all showed enhancing effects on diosgenin production in D. zingiberensis cell cultures [10].…”

Microwave-assisted extraction and a new determination method for total steroid saponins from Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright

“…In the standards method, a large quantity of saponins standards need to be bought, which incurs large economic costs and necessitates tedious calculations. Studies on steroid saponins of DZW revealed that there are 11 steroid saponins in the rhizomes [22,23]. Among these saponins, zingiberensis newsaponin, deltonin, diosgenintriglucoside, diosgenin-diglucoside and trillin are the predominant ones [2].…”

Diosgenin quantification, characterisation and chemical composition in a tuber collection of Dioscorea spp. in the state of Jalisco, Mexico

“…After extraction, pure products obtained are frequently isolated and then separated from the raw extract by column chromatography. Lin & Yang (2008) determined the quantity of diosgenin in plants of Dioscorea pseudojaponica Yamamoto using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), but gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been an effective technique for quantifying several steroidal sapogenins in Trigonella foenumgraecum and Dioscorea zingiberensis (Taylor et al, 1997;Kaufmann et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2009).…”