CURRENT HIGHLIGHTS ON BIOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILE OF DIOSCOREA ALATA : A REVIEW
Barinderjit Kaur, Salema Khatun, Ashish Suttee
Abstract
Dioscorea alata, also known as water yam is an important plant found globally. Nearly 600 different yam species have been reported around the world. D. alata is an edible product, it is highly cultivated in countries like tropical South America, Africa, Australia, and South-eastern U.S. Dioscorea alata, commonly known as water yam, purple yam, ube, or greater yam has been reported to have diverse activities in various diseases. D. alata belongs to dioscoreaceae family and has been found to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic properties. The metabolic products of dioscorea alata are phenolic compounds, reducing sugars, flavonoids, glycoside, saponins, alkaloids, anthraquinones, proteins, tannins etc. The active constituents of D. alata are diosgenin, dioscorine, dioscin, cholin, mucin, allantoin, crude fat, crude fiber, catechins, chlorogenic acids, proanthocyanidins, myricetin, diosbulbin and sapogenin. Diosgenin is one of the main steroidal glycoside has been reported to have different activities like anti-diabetic activity, anti-hypertensive activity, anti-cancer activity, anti-inflammatory activity and cardio protective activity. Diosgenin is effective in heart disease due to the anti-oxidative and anti-apoptotic activity. Diosgenin has also been found to reduce oxidative stress and increase the levels of glutathione, SOD and catalase activity. Diosgenin also reported to inhibit the apoptosis by reducing the activation of caspase 9, a pro-apoptotic factor. Furthermore, bioactive compounds, including diosgenin, anthocyanins and dietary fiber of D. alata tuber has potential to prevent the condition of hyperlipidemia by normalizing blood lipid profiles. However, further investigations are required to find the effect of D. alata on cardiovascular disorders.