Biological activities and applications of dioscorins, the major tuber storage proteins of yam.
Yam tubers, a common tuber crop and an important traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan, have many bioactive substances, including phenolic compounds, mucilage polysaccharides, steroidal saponins and proteins. Among the total soluble proteins, 80% of them are dioscorins. In the past two decades, many studies showed that dioscorins exhibited biological activities both in vitro and in vivo, including the enzymatic, antioxidant, antihypertensive, immunomodulatory, lectin activities and the protecting role on airway epithelial cells against allergens in vitro. Some of these activities are survived after chemical, heating process or enzymatic digestion. Despite of lacking the intact structural information and the detail action mechanisms in the cells, yam dioscorins are potential resources for developing as functional foods and interesting targets for food protein researchers.
School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yeh-Lin
YL
Lu
Graduate Institute of Pharmacognosy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Cho-Yun
CY
Chia
School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yen-Wenn
YW
Liu
Graduate Institute of Pharmacognosy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Wen-Chi
WC
Hou
Allergen; Antihypertensive protein; Antioxidant; Dioscorin; Immunomodulatory; Lectin; Yam tuber storage Protein