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]
Chemical structure of digitonin
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Names | |
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Other names
Digitin
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Identifiers | |
3D model (JSmol)
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ChEBI | |
ChEMBL | |
ChemSpider | |
ECHA InfoCard | 100.031.129 |
EC Number |
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KEGG | |
PubChem CID
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UNII | |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA)
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Properties | |
C56H92O29 | |
Molar mass | 1229.323 g·mol−1 |
Appearance | White to off-white powder |
Melting point | 244.0–248.5 °C (471.2–479.3 °F; 517.1–521.6 K)[1] |
Chiral rotation ([α]D)
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-40° (589.3 nm; 20 °C)[1] |
Hazards | |
Lethal dose or concentration (LD, LC): | |
LD50 (median dose)
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23 mg/kg (rat, intravenous)[2]
4 mg/kg (mouse, intravenous)[3] |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Digitonin is sometimes confused with the cardiac drugs digoxin and digitoxin; all three can be extracted from the same source.
Chemical properties
edit- Critical micelle concentration = < 0.5 mM
- Average micellar weight = 70000
- Aggregation number = 60
References
edit- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.