Dioscorea Yam Yam Sapogenin Extract New Technology

Diosgenin is a steroidal compound very useful in pharmaceutical industry as a natural source of steroidal hormones. Dioscorea Zingiberensis C. H. Wright is an important raw material for extracting diosgenin, whose industrial extraction has been carried out. However, mass pollution is generated in the process because of acid hydrolysis. A novel technology for diosgenin extraction was studied in this paper. The work in this paper is described as follows:(1) An accurate and rapid reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography was established for the determination of diosgenin. The chromatographic conditions were studied for the separation diosgenin from other component. Chromatographic separation was carried out on VP-ODS( 150×4.6 mm, 5μm)column using MeOH:H₂O(95:5, V/V) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The UV detection was performed at 208 nm. Results showed that the linear range of calibration curve was 0.1～2.0 g/L (r=0.9998), the average recovery was 99.76% with RSD of 1.76%(n=3). It could be concluded that the method was accurate, reproducible and precision could be applied rapidly determine the diosgenin. At the same time, spectrophotometric analysis of diosgenin was studied for comparison with chromatography.(2) A novel technology for extracting diosgenin from Dioscorea Zingibersis C. H. Wright was studied. Several important factors were analyzed in the orthogonal study of six factors and five levels, and the content of diosgenin was valued as an evaluation index using spectrophotometry. The results indicated that the concentration of sulfuric acid had an obvious effect on the content of diosgenin extracted. And experiments show the optimal technology for diosgenin extraction is under the conditions shown as followings: 20 g sample is refluxed for 4 h with methanol, and 10 minutes for each reflux operation; then 100 mL 2.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ is added for 6 hours of hydrolysis; at last is refluxed for 2 h with gasoline, and 15 minutes for each reflux operation, which can be used as a rapid and clean extraction technology. Preextraction of starch and cellulose, as main compound ofDioscorea Zingibersis C. H. Wright, would reduce acid consumption obviously comparing to traditional technology.(3) The optimum fermentation conditions in alcohol production by residue from diosgenin processing were established. Several important factors were analyzed in the orthogonal study of five factors and four levels. The content of alcohol was valued as an evaluation index using spectrophotometry. The results indicate that the linear range of calibration curve was 0.028%～0.24% (r=0.9998) after color reaction, and optimal fermentation conditions were determined as follows: the use level ofα-amylase as 7 U/g, cellulase 110 U/g, glucoamylase 110 U/g, yeast 0.04 g/g, and 4 days fermentation time.