• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2005

Effects of growth regulators on growth of adventitious roots and accumulation of steroidal saponins, such as dioscin, prosapogenin A and prosapogenin C, in cultures of Dioscorea nipponica were determined. The maximum growth of adventitious roots was observed in MS medium supplemented with 30 g/L sucrose and 1.0 mg/L NAA. Addition of BA in combination with NAA appeared to be no effective in the growth of adventitious roots. Among the twenty different adventitious roots formed from different seeds, strain No. 10 was selected based on production ability of dioscin, and its stability through the successive liquid culture. During the first 4 weeks of incubation, contents of steroidal saponins in adventitious roots were negligible but the contents were markedly increased at 5 weeks of incubation. Dioscin and prosapogenin C content in IBA-treated adventitious roots were significantly higher than those in NAA-treated roots. However, content of prosapogenin A was not significantly different among NAA or IBA level. Results provide that liquid culture of adventitious roots of D. nipponica have a potential for mass production of dioscin including prosapogenin A and prosapogenin C.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 1989

Five known diosgenin glycosides have been isolated from the MeOH extract of Smilax china rhizomes and characterized as prosapogenin A of dioscin, dioscin, gracillin, methyl protogracillin, methyl protodioscin and its corresponding 22-hydroxy analog. This is the first isolation of the former four compounds from this plant. ${\beta}-Sitosterol\;glucoside$ was also isolated and identified.