The Comprehensive Utilization Of Yam Resources And The Control Of Pollution Sources Of Diosgenin Industrial

Objective: The diosgenin extracted from yam can be synthesized the steroid hormone medicine, the anti-inflammatory medicine and the steroid contraceptive. The traditional extraction technology of the diosgenin is processed as hydrolyzing with acid solution after natural fermentation. The technology doesn't make use of starch and other sources of yam, and needs much of acid solution which will badly pollute the environment. Moreover the diosgenin production rate is low with this method. By having refer to large numbers of extraction technology for the diosgenin and industrial waste water treatment status, this paper want to find a new clean technology to extract diosgenin and hope to recover some useful components from the saponin industrial wastewater.Methods: Following the determination for yam starch content, the conditions of yam fermenting to product ethyl alcohol have been studied. Based on the judgment that the technology of extracting diosgenin from fermented yam would decrease the acid consumption, and then a new clean production process for diosgenin was made up. Consulted various kinds of technology extracting valuable components from plants, it have been found that the pectin can be extracted by alcohol-precipitation and the water-soluble diosgenin can be absorbed by diatomite from the saponin wastewater.Results: It has been proved that yam starch can be fermented to product ethyl alcohol, with the new technology, the yam starch utilization ratio is 86.30%, the acid consumes is only 55% of the traditional process. Compared to the traditional process, the rate of yield for diosgenin enhanced 20.37% and the total COD of the waste water reduced by 60.25%. As well as 3.6172g pectin and 0.6356g water-soluble diosgenin were extracted from the 100mL saponin wastewater so that its volume reduced by 60.0% and the total COD reduced by 77.24%.Conclusion: The results showed that the new extraction technology of the diosgenin has utilized the yam starch, improved diosgemn yield and decreased the pollution, so that the new technology was valuable practice. It also showed that the saponin wastewater had become less pollution after pectin and water-soluble diosgenin were extracted from the water.