PHARMACOLOGICAL VALUES OF WILD TUBEROUS FOOD PLANTS

Sanjeet Kumar
Department of Botany,  Ravenshaw University
Cuttack, India
sanjeet.biotech@gmail.com

Dioscorea rhizome and tubers are an herb which has been widely used as an edible food as a traditional medicine in the world. It has been used for stimulating the stomach and spleen against poor appetite and has a toxic effect on the lungs and kidneys. Lots of biological activities of Dioscorea species have been reported for anti-oxidative, anti-fungal, anti-mutagenic, hypoglycemic, immunomodulary effect, and it is used as an important ingredient of dietary supplements and cosmetic in pharmaceutical industry now days. Many phytochemicals studies revealed that purine derivatives, saponin, starches, mucilage are present as main constituents in Dioscorea tubers, and allantoin, one of purine derivatives, is well-known biologically active compounds in Dioscorea species ( Fu et al., 2006) Allantoin is a common constituent of plants such as legumes and coffee. The role of allantoin has been suggested that, it is present as a nitrogen storage form in plants or as a product in the detoxification process of ammonia in plant tissues (Siegfried et al., 1975) and it has been demonstrated that Dioscorea species contain higher level of allantoin content than any other plants( Fu et al., 2006). Therefore , allantoin could be a good standard substance for the quality control of Dioscorea tubers because of their pharmacological activities and aboundance in Diosorea species. So far, there have been many reports to determine allantoin in biofluid with HPLC, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS (Berthemy et al., 1999; Czauderna et al., 2000; George et al., 2006;Shingfield et al., 1998;Terzuoli et al.,1995), and a capilliary electrophoresis method has been published for measuring allantoin content in Dioscorea Tubers. Dioscorea bulbifera has more Allantoin content than other species.

Pandey and Tripathy, 2010 reported the antioxidant activity of tuberosin isolated from Pueraria tuberosa. Araghiniknam et al., 1996 reported the antioxidant activity of Dioscorea and dehydroepiandrosterone in older humans. Sonibare and Abegunde, 2012 reported the antioxidant activity and their bioactive metabolites of Dioscorea species of Nigeria. Panduranga et al., 2011 reported anti-inflammatory activity of ethnolic leaf extract of Dioscorea hispida. Liu et al., 2006 reported antioxidant activities of Dioscorea species using DPPH radical, Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assay and anti-lipid peroxidation test. Parkash and Hosetti, 2012 reported the antibacterial and antifungal activity of Dioscorea pentaphylla of Midmist-Western Ghats against 27 bacterial strains and 5 fungal clinical strains. Bhurat et al., 2011 reported the analgesic activity of ethanolic extract of tuber of Remusatia vivipara. Panduranga et al., 2011 reported analgesic activity of ethnolic leaf extract of Dioscorea hispida.


Maithili et al., 2011 reported the antidiabetic activity of ethanolic extract of tubers of Dioscorea alata in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Ghosh et al., 2012 reported the antidiabetic potential of tubers of Dioscorea bulbifera. Arva et al., 2013 reported the antidiabetic activity of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Kumawat et al., 2010 reported that antidiabetic activity of ethanol extract of Colocasia esculenta leaves in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Bhurat, 2010 reported the effect of Remusatia vivipara tubers on animal model of depression using tail suspension, forced swim test and actophotometer that ethonalic extract has potent CNS dipression action. Raghuwanshi and Jain, 2012 reported the hypoglycemic effect of Pueraria tuberosa tubers in healthy and alloxan diabetic rats. Rao et al., 2008 reported the Nootropic activity of tuber extract of Pueraria tuberosa. Peng et al., 2011 reported the Antiosteoporotic activity of Dioscorea alata on bone formation and mechanism of extracts. Wang et al., 2012 reported the anti-tumor activity of Dioscorea bulbifera rhizome in vivo. Achuba, 2002 reported the activity of superoxide dismutase activity of Dioscorea species. Shajeela et al., 2011 reported the antifertility activity of ethanolic extract of Dioscorea esculenta on male albino rats. Wang et al., 2011 reported anticlastogenic effect of aqueous extracts from water yam (Dioscorea alata L.). Martin, 1969 reported a bioactive compounds Diosgenin, is a sapogenin used in the synthesis of steroidal drugs. Karnick, 1971 reported the phytochemical present in Dioscorea species and number of species found in India. Diosgenin is the primary active ingredient in Dioscorea species. It is structurally similar to cholesterol. After oral administration. It is metabolized in the liver and eliminated via the bile. Estrogenic and anti-inflammatory effects of diosgenin have been hypothesized due to its structural similarity to estrogen precursors. Wild yam is also contains an aboundance of starch (Satija, 2011). Asha and Nair, 2005 reported that Dioscorea deltoidea Wall. is the major species exploited in India for diosgenin obtained from rhizomes, they also reported  the maximum diosgenin yield was recorded in D. pubera (1220 μg /g d. wt.) followed by D. spicata (305 μg/g d. wt.), D. hispida (57 μg/g d. wt) and D. hamiltonii (3 μg/g d. wt.). Ozo et al., 1984 reported the phenolic compounds Cyanidin-3-glucoside and the procyanidin dimmers B-1 and B-3 from Dioscorea alata.





Steroidal sapogenins. It is the precursor for the semi-synthesis of progesterone which in turn was used in early combined oral contraceptive pills.



Hou et al., 2000 reported that dioscorins present in Dioscorea spesies have potential to exhibit carbonic anahydrase and trypsin inhibitors activities. Okunlola and Odeku, 2008 evaluated as disintegrants in chloroquine phosphate tablet formulation in comparison with official corn starch. Again Okunlola and Odeku, 2009 reported the compressional characteristics and tableting properties of starches of D. dumetorum, D. alata, D. oppositifolia and D. rotundata. Behera et al., 2010 estimated the diosgenin content in D. bulbifera (1383 mg) and D. hispida (825 mg). Avula et al., 2012 reported 20 different types of steroidal saponins from Dioscorea species using UHPLC-QTOF-MS. Franklin et al., 1966 reported the sapogenin in different Dioscorea species.  Martin and Cabanillas, 1963 reported a precursor of cortisone and related steroidal drugs derived from Dioscorea species. Poornima and Ravishankar, 2009 reported the bioactive compounds in Dioscorea belophylla as saponins (18.46 mg / 100gm), alkaloids (0.68 mg / 100 gm), flavonoids (8.84 mg / 100 gm), tannin and phenols. Lkediobi et al., 1988 reported acid phosphatase in the tubers of Dioscorea species.