Evaluation of the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the nutritionally rich plant, Dioscorea alata L.
Sadhni Induar1
, Debasmita Dubey2, Shakti Rath3*, Rajesh Kumar Meher4, Santosh Kumar Swain5 and Subrat Kumar Tripathy61Food Sciences and Technology, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India.
2Medical Research Laboratory, IMS and SUM Hospital, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, K8, Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
3Microbiology and Research, Central Research Laboratory, Institute of Dental Sciences, Siksha ‘O’Anusandhan Deemed to be University, K8, Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
4Centre of Excellence in Natural Products and Therapeutics, Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha, India.
5Department of Otorhinolaryngology, IMS and SUM Hospital, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, K8, Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
6Department of Biochemistry, IMS and SUM Hospital, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, K8, Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Corresponding Author E-mail: dr.shaktirath@gmail.com
Abstract: Dioscorea alata belongs to Dioscoreaceae or the yam family. Around 600 Dioscorea species are consumed in various regions of the world. Dioscorea alata is well known cultivated tuber consumed by both rural and urban people. In this study, we have investigated the nutrient composition, phytochemicals, and antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the underground and aerial tubers of Dioscorea alata. The result of the analysis showed that the aerial tuber of D. alata contained a higher amount of moisture (68.51%), ash (4.64%), starch (5.61%), reducing sugar (0.029%), fat (0.33%) and protein (1.39%) than underground tuber of D. alata. At the same time, carbohydrates, free amino acids, vitamin C, sodium, potassium and iron contents were superior in the underground tuber than in the aerial tuber. Further, both underground and aerial tuber was a good source of phenols, flavonoids, tannins and diosgenin. The underground tuber exhibited better DPPH scavenging potential compared to the aerial tuber. Six solvents extract of D. alata showed significant to moderate antibacterial activity toward seven tested clinical stains. Thus, the tuber of D. alata could be used as a better food supplement to meet the calorie requirement and a rich source of relevant antimicrobial agents to treat microbial infections.
Keywords: Antimicrobial agent; Diosgenin; DPPH; Flavonoid; TPC Back to TOC