Screening of Dioscorea Species for Diosgenin from Southern Western Ghats of India

Abstract

Dioscorea deltoidea Wall. is the major species exploited in India for diosgenin obtained from rhizomes. The natural
stock of D. deltoidea being exhausted due to large-scale collection from forest areas and very poor rate of regeneration,
leads to apprehensions that this important raw material may completely be lost to the industry if steps to conserve
the stocks are not taken up immediately. Preliminary screening of different species locally available to identify new
sources of diosgenin identified leaf samples to show presence of diosgenin in all the twelve species while tuber samples
of only 4 species viz., Dioscorea hispida, D. hamiltonii, D. spicata and D. pubera revealed its presence. Of these,
the maximum diosgenin yield was recorded in D. pubera (1220 J.lg/g d. wt.) followed by D. spicata (305 J.lg/g d.
wt.), D. hi.\pida (57 J.lg/g d. wt) and D. hamiltonii (3 J.lg/g d. wt.).