Purple Yam Powder Extract

1.Production introduction

Purple yam is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus *Dioscorea* in the family Dioscoreaceae. Its seedlings are purple, with a spreading, grape-like growth habit; the above-ground stems are wavy and wrinkled; the corolla is white; it is dioecious or monoecious, and cannot naturally produce fruit, or if it does, it produces seedless fruit; the tubers are oblong, with deep and numerous eyes, purple skin, and white flesh; tuber formation is concentrated, with a higher proportion of large tubers. Purple yam is a cultivated species that evolved from both wild yam and brown-bracted yam, belonging to the common yam group and specifically the purple-red flesh variety group.

Purple yam, also known

as "purple ginseng" or "large yam," is a special variety of yam. Its most distinctive feature is its bright purple flesh, mainly due to its high anthocyanin content, similar to purple sweet potatoes, but it belongs to the Dioscoreaceae family and is related to the white yam we commonly eat.

A Deeper Comparison with Purple Sweet Potatoes

While both purple yams and purple sweet potatoes are purple due to anthocyanins, they are fundamentally different plants with distinct core values ​​and component focuses.

**Different Core Functional Components:**

The core highlight of purple sweet potatoes is their high anthocyanin content. Research and applications primarily focus on their antioxidant properties, eye health benefits, and role as a pigment source.

Purple yams, on the other hand, are a "complex contender." In addition to anthocyanins, they contain unique and highly valuable diosgenin. This gives purple yams a unique advantage in regulating endocrine function and delaying aging in women, and their medicinal and health benefits are generally considered higher than those of purple sweet potatoes.

**Different Traditional Medicinal Values:**

Purple sweet potatoes are more of a nutritious modern health food.

Purple yams have long been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, believed to have spleen-strengthening, lung-tonifying, kidney-tonifying, and essence-replenishing effects. They are a traditional food and medicine homology ingredient.

2.Function and Application

Purple yam extract, with its unique bioactive components, has applications primarily encompassing the following areas:

1. Pharmaceuticals and Health Products
This is the most promising application area for purple yam extract. Its rich content of polysaccharides, diosgenin, anthocyanins, and other components has been proven to possess various physiological functions.

2. Functional Foods and Beverages
As a natural and healthy raw material, purple yam extract is widely used in the food industry.

Natural Colorant: Its vibrant purple color comes from anthocyanins, a safe and non-toxic natural pigment that can be used to color pastries (such as steamed buns, noodles, and bread), candies, ice cream, yogurt, and various beverages, meeting consumer demand for "clean labels" and natural products.

Main Ingredient Application: Purple yam powder or extract can be used directly as the main ingredient to develop specialty products, such as purple yam juice, purple yam solid beverages, and purple yam yogurt.

3. Cosmetics and Skincare Products
The antioxidant and moisturizing properties of purple yam extract also make it an ideal raw material for the cosmetics industry.

4. Agricultural and Resource Comprehensive Utilization

To maximize the value of purple yam, the comprehensive utilization of its by-products is also an important direction.

By-product development: By-products such as the peel, stems, and leaves produced during purple yam processing also contain active ingredients. These parts can be used to extract natural pigments, or after processing, used as animal feed, organic fertilizer, or even developed into raw materials for health teas, achieving the utilization of the entire plant and enhancing its economic value.

3.Extraction Process Research：

To efficiently extract the active ingredients from purple yam, researchers optimized several extraction methods:

1. Anthocyanin Extraction Optimization
Researchers used response surface methodology to finely optimize the extraction process of anthocyanins from purple yam.

Key Parameters: The optimal process parameters obtained included: extraction temperature 80-81℃, extraction time 3.5 hours, liquid-to-solid ratio 25:1 (mL/g), ethanol volume fraction 70%, and hydrochloric acid mass fraction 18‰ (used as an acidic ethanol solvent).

Yield: Under these optimized conditions, the average yield of anthocyanins reached approximately 4.93-4.97 mg/g.

Influencing Factors: Among many factors, the hydrochloric acid mass fraction (i.e., the acidity of the extraction solvent) and extraction time had the most significant impact on the anthocyanin yield.

2. Polysaccharide Extraction Optimization
For purple yam polysaccharides, the study primarily employed water extraction and alcohol precipitation, combined with orthogonal design for process optimization.

Key parameters: One study determined the optimal conditions to be: extraction time 3.5 hours, extraction temperature 85℃, ethanol concentration 85% (for polysaccharide precipitation), and liquid-to-solid ratio 60:1 (mL/g).

Yield: The polysaccharide yield under this process was 5.39%.

Influencing factors: In this study, extraction time had the greatest impact on polysaccharide yield.

Another study, through orthogonal experimental optimization, determined that the highest yield of crude polysaccharide from *Dioscorea opposita* (purple yam) reached 2.58% under the conditions of a solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:15, extraction temperature 55℃, and extraction time of 2 hours. This demonstrates the significant influence of different process conditions on the yield.

OEM Service

As a supplier of plant extracts for 15 years, we can guarantee the quality of products, we can provide different customized services.If you have any requirements, please contact us.

1. Timely online communication and reply within 12 hours;

2. Choose high-quality raw materials;

3.OEM/ODM available;

4. Reasonable and competitive price;

5. Free samples can be provided;

6. Credit guarantee: Alibaba third-party trade guarantee;

7. Fast delivery time: stable inventory of products; Mass production within 7 days;

8. Quality assurance: Internationally authorized third party testing for the products you need.

9. Halal, Kosher, ISO 9001, ISO22000, ECO, GMP, FDA and other certificates are our strong backing to ensure product quality.

Deliver & Shipping

We accept International Express--Fedex/DHL/UPS, air shipping and sea shipping,  We can ship to all over the world, even to some remote areas, such as remote areas of Russia, countries near the north and south poles. 

Our products meet ISO standards, We are very specialized in fadogia agrestis extract powder.If you are interested in our products, please send email to: haozebio2014@gmail.com