Steroid Sapogenin-bearing Plants of India

Due to the rapidly increasing importance of Steroid sapogenins for the manufacture of cortisone, sex hormones and oral contraceptives, there is a vigorous search all over the world for vegetable raw meterials which can provide cheap and sustained supplies of starting material for further synthesis of a variety of steroid hormones, particularly oral contraceptive agents for population control. In India, some of the plants such as Dioscorea deltoidea have yielded as high as 4.8 to 8.0 per cent and D. prazeri 2.0 to 4.0 per cent Diosgenin which is at present, the most favoured starting material for synthesis of steroid hormones. Some of the Agava species used for the extraction of fibre yield workable percentage of hecogenin from its pulp which is a by-product. Similarly, some species of Solanum, namely Solanum incanum, S. khasianum and S. aviculare (a recently introduced plant) have yielded gluco- alkaloids, solasidine and solanine which can be used for the same purpose. The diagnostic characters of these plants with a view to distinguish them from other edible yams, the variation in diosgenin contents due to season of sampling or ecology or geographical races are discussed.