Abstract
BackgroundDiosgenin, mainly extracted from wild diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species, is a well-known starting material of steroidal and contraceptive drugs. However, due to large market demand and increasingly ecological damage, wild Dioscorea species resources available have been gradually declining. Therefore, identification of new potential ecological distribution of diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species is necessary for diosgenin production.MethodsIn this study, a large occurrence dataset (1808 data points) of diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species was obtained from Eastern Asia, Southern North America and Southern Africa. Along with the data for six critical environmental parameters and one soil factor, Geographic Information System for Global Medicinal Plant was applied to predict the potential suitable distribution of Dioscorea species.ResultsThe results showed that the potential distribution of these Dioscorea species covered a wide field, and that new ecological suitability areas were mainly distributed in the central region of South America, the southern part of the European and coastal region of Oceania. Jackknife test indicated that annual precipitation and annual mean radiation were the important climatic factors controlling the distribution of Dioscorea species.ConclusionsThe suitable areas and critical climatic factors will serve as a useful guide for diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species conservation and cultivation in ecological suitable areas.
Highlights
Diosgenin, mainly extracted from wild diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species, is a well-known starting material of steroidal and contraceptive drugs
Model performance and contribution of environmental variables D. deltoidea and D. nipponica showed a significantly different performance in regions and climatic factors comparing to all the other species (Table 1, Additional file 4: Figure S1)
For four of the taxa (D. zingiberensis, D. sylvatica, D. spiculiflora and D. nipponica), radiation emerged as an important contributor to the modelled distribution, as well as precipitation probability for other three taxa (D. composita, D. deltoidea and D. panthaica), humidity for D. gracillima and T-cold for D
Summary
Mainly extracted from wild diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species, is a well-known starting material of steroidal and contraceptive drugs. Due to large market demand and increasingly ecological damage, wild Dioscorea species resources available have been gradually declining. Diosgenin is a versatile starting material for the manufacture of steroidal drugs, and it is mainly extracted from Dioscorea species [1]. There are 137 kinds of Dioscorea species containing diosgenin, 41 kinds of which contain over 1% diosgenin with great utilization value [3]. Booming market demands boosted the expansion of introduction and cultivation of Dioscorea species worldwide. The yield and quality of diosgenin was declined due to the lack of high-quality germplasm, unknown
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