Dioscorea (dioscorea Nipponica Mak,.) The Study Of Anti-cancer Active Ingredient

Dioscorea nipponica Makino is a plant of the family Dioscorea, which is distributed in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang , Jilin,Liaoning and other provinces in China. The plant is not only a main resource to medicines for cardiovascular diseases ,but also one of the useful sources of diosgenin, a widely used raw material for the production of steroid and contraceptive. It has been used for the treatment of many ailments including coronary heart diseases, atherosclerosis , hyperlipemia, inflammation, tumours, etc. Its effective parts are the total sapogenins of Dioscorea nipponica Makino.In order to look for new cytotoxicity compounds in vitro, the chemical constituents of the 60% ethanol extract of Dioscorea nipponica Mak. were investigated. Fourteen compounds were isolated from the 60% ethanol extract of Dioscorea nipponica Mak. through various chromatographic techniques, such as D101 macroporous resin, silica gel column chromatogram, ODS column chromatogram, Sephadex LH-20 column chromatogram, HPLC, et al.Their structures were elucidated on the basis of physico-chemical properties and spectral methods. 3-O-[ α -L-rhamnopyranosyl(1â†'2)- { α -L-rhamnopyranosyl(1â†'4) } -(6'-O-hexadecanoyl)-β-D- glucopyranosyl]-25(R)-spirost-5-en-3β-ol(13)* was elucidated as a new compound; pseudoprotodioscin(1), methylprotodioscin(2), protodioscin(3), dioscin(4), diosgenone(5), diosgenin(6), diosgenin-3,6-dione(7), 7-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4E,6E-heptadien-3-one(8), 1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-phenyl)hepta-4E,6E-dien-3-one (9),Progenin III(10), Dracaenoside E(11), Progenin II(12), trillin(14) were elucidated as known compounds.Of all the compounds isolated from Dioscorea nipponica Mak. including twelve steroidal saponins and two diarylheptanoids, compounds 5, 8, 9, 11 were isolated from this genus for the first time, compound 7 was isolated from plants for the first time, compound 13 was a new compound.The in vitro cytotoxicity of these compounds against cell line HepG2 was evaluated by MTT assay. As a result, compounds 2-4, 7-12, 14 showed considerable cytotoxity to cell line HepG2. These results suggested great prospects in further development of this plant.