diosgenin

English

Etymology

From Dios(corea) + genin, after (deprecated template usage) [etyl] German Diosgenin.

Noun

diosgenin (countable and uncountable, plural diosgenins)

1. (organic chemistry) A steroid sapogenin, obtained from certain yams, that has estrogenic activity.
   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society 2016, p. 547:

     Obtaining adequate quantities of hormonal substances for research was impossible, however, until the early 1940s, when Russell E. Marker (1902–95) found that he could extract diosgenin from a wild yam growing in Mexico […]

Anagrams

• denoising