• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.183-187
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• 1997

This study was carried out to find the growth characteristics and content of sarsasapogenin in different plant parts of Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge. Five native-cultivars were collected and evaluated for several agronomic traits. The collected native-cultivars were classified into two seed-attached peduncle and vegetative propagation types. Seed-attached peduncle lines were predominance of growth traits than vegetative propagation. For the content of sarsasapogenin in each part was investigated, BuOH extarct of 'timo' was developed on silica gel 60G plate using elution solvent($CHC1_2$: Methyl ethyl Ketone : EtOH = 11 : 2 : 0.5). The developed plate were examined using Dual Wavelength Zig - Zag using. Content of sarsasapogenin in main root and lateral root were respectively 1.67mg/g and 1.31mg/g.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.340-345
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• 2012

Sarsasapogenin (SAR) is a steroidal sapogenin that is used as starting material for the industrial synthesis of steroids. It has various pharmacological benefits, such as antitumor and antidepressant activities. Since its effect on melanin biosynthesis has not been reported, we used murine melanocyte melan-a cells to investigate whether SAR influences melanogenesis. In this study, SAR significantly increased the melanin content of the melan-a cells from 1 to 10 ${\mu}M$. Based on an enzymatic activity assay using melan-a cell lysate, SAR had no effect on tyrosinase and DOPAchrome tautomerase activities. It also did not affect the protein expression of tyrosinase-related protein 1 and DOPAchrome tautomerase. However, protein levels of tyrosinase and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor were strongly stimulated by treatment with SAR. Therefore, our reports suggest that SAR treatment may induce melanogenesis through the stimulation of tyrosinase and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor expression in melan-a cells.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.47-50
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• 1995

EtOAc soluble part of MeOH extract of Anemarrhena asphodeloides rhizome was evaluated for the cytotoxicity against the five kinds of human tumor cell lines (A-549, SK-OV-3, SK-MEL-2, XF498 and HCT15) in vitro. Bioassay-guided fractionation of EtOAc soluble part led to the isolation of active compound which was identified as timosaponin A-III showed potent cytotoxic activity, but its genin, sarsasapogenin, did not show cell growth inhibition.