Digitonin is a steroidal saponin (saraponin) obtained from the foxglove plant Digitalis purpurea. Its aglycone is digitogenin, a spirostan steroid. It has been investigated as a detergent, as it effectively water-solubilizes lipids. As such, it has several potential membrane-related applications in biochemistry, including solubilizing membrane proteins, precipitating cholesterol, and permeabilizing cell membranes.[4][5]

Digitonin is sometimes confused with the cardiac drugs digoxin and digitoxin; all three can be extracted from the same source.

Chemical properties

References

  1. ^ a b Tschesche, R.; Wulff, G. (January 1963). "Über saponine der spirostanolreihe—IX". Tetrahedron (in German). 19 (4): 621–634. doi:10.1016/S0040-4020(01)98548-5.
  2. ^ Segal, Ruth; Milo-Goldzweig, Ilana; Kaplan, Gideon; Weisenberg, Emil (April 1977). "The protective action of glycyrrhizin against saponin toxicity". Biochemical Pharmacology. 26 (7): 643–645. doi:10.1016/0006-2952(77)90039-9. PMID 856195.
  3. ^ Pitha, Josef; Szente, Lajos (February 1984). "Digitonin derivatives of low toxicity: Potential solubilizers for lipophilic compounds". Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 73 (2): 240–243. doi:10.1002/jps.2600730224. PMID 6707892.
  4. ^ Geelen, Math J.H. (December 2005). "The use of digitonin-permeabilized mammalian cells for measuring enzyme activities in the course of studies on lipid metabolism". Analytical Biochemistry. 347 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.ab.2005.03.032. PMID 16291302.
  5. ^ Fiskum, Gary (April 1985). "Intracellular levels and distribution of Ca2+ in digitonin-permeabilized cells". Cell Calcium. 6 (1–2): 25–37. doi:10.1016/0143-4160(85)90032-6. PMID 4016893.