Abstract
Steroidal sapogenins, diosgenin in particular, are of current research interest as precursors employed by the pharmaceutical industry for the partial synthesis of important steroid drugs as well as for their revealed biological activities of potential medical uses. We report on the content of steroidal sapogenins in mature fruits of Balanites aegyptiaca, a wild tree of wide-spread occurrence in Sudan, where large quantities of fruit are collected from the wild and sold in local markets for the determination fruit mesocarp. A simple, selective, infrareresided spectrophotoetric method was used for the determination of both 25 alpha- and 25 beta- epinneric steroidal sapogenins in crude extracts. Most of the total steroidal sapagenin of the balanites fruit resided in the mesocarp (64%), followed by the kernel (ca.25%). The fragile epicarp contained about10%. No sapogenin was detected in the woody endocarp. The ratio of 25 alpha -to 25 beta-sapogenin considerably varied among the fruit morphological parts. The content of total sapogenin was determined in the kernels of 15 fruit accessions of balanites collected from different parts of Sudan. Values found varied from 2.5% to 5.0%, based on kernel dry weight. This range compares very well with the sapogenin content reported for Dioscorea, so far the major world commercial source of diosgenin. Kernels of the 15 Sudanese balanites fruit accessions were enriched in 25 alpha- (diosgenin-like) sapogenins. It was concuded that whole balanites kernels or de-fatted kernel powder could be commercialized on a world-wide scale as a source of diosgenin, complementing the role of Dioscorea. Although the kernel constitutes only one-tenth of the balanites fruit weight,as shown in this study, we claim that Sudan alone could produce fruit material enough to sustain such world-wide commercial exploitatin.