Catalytic Alcoholysis to Prepare Diosgenin with a Solid Acid Based on Nano TiO2.

Diosgenin is an important intermediate of drugs, the special structure similar to hormone determines its important position in drug synthesis. Diosgenin was generally obtained by sulfuric acid hydrolysis of dioscorea, which produced too much acid wastewater, and caused environmental issues. A new solid acid based on TiO2 was designed and synthesized through the sulfonation of the prepared TiO2, the structure was fully characterized by FTIR, SEM, EDX, XPS and XRD. Under the optimized conditions, the yield of diosgenin reached 30.75%, the value was much higher than that of H2SO4 of the same quality. To explore the factors that affect the yield, the usage amount of the solid acid, the temperature, the solvent volume and the extraction time were taken into the analysis, and the results of the recycling experiments indicated that the prepared solid acid can be used for three time and maintain its high activity. A highly efficient solid acid catalyst for diosgenin extraction from saponins was successfully synthesized, and the extraction method was environmentally friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]