Chemical Constituents, Biological Activities, and Proposed Biosynthetic Pathways of Steroidal Saponins from Healthy Nutritious Vegetable-.

Huaxiang Wang, Qi Zheng, Aijun Dong, Junchi Wang, Jianyong Si

Journal: Nutrients 2023;15(9):2233

PMID: 37432450

Abstract

is a common functional vegetable with edible and medicinal value. plants have a special spicy taste, so they are often used as food and seasoning in people's diets. As a functional food, also has abundant biological activities, some of which are used as drugs to treat diseases. By consuming on a daily basis, people can receive active compounds of natural origin, thereby improving their health status and reducing the likelihood of disease. Steroidal saponins are important secondary metabolites of , which are formed by the steroidal aglycone group and sugar. Steroidal saponins have various physiological activities, such as hypoglycemic, antiplatelet aggregation, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimicrobial, and enzyme activity inhibition, which is one of the key reasons why has such significant health benefits. The structural diversity and rich biological activities of steroidal saponins make important plants for both food and medicine. In this paper, the chemical structures, biological activities, and structure-activity relationships of steroidal saponins isolated from are reviewed, and the biosynthetic pathways of some key compounds are proposed as well, to provide a molecular reference basis based on secondary metabolites for the health value of .

Address: Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China.; Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resource Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100193, China.; Beijing Key Laboratory of Innovative Drug Discovery of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Natural Medicine) and Translational Medicine, Beijing 100193, China.
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