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Digitonin, bark saponin, Phospholipids, Sterols, Fluorescence microscopy, Langmuir monolayer, IRRAS
Abstract:
The present paper discusses the use of monolayers of lipid mixtures mimicking the composition of biological membranes of bacteria, erythrocyte and yeast in the context of the anti-bacterial, hemolytic and anti-fungal activity of saponins. Saponins are plant-produced glycosidic biosurfactants with either steroidal or triterpenoidal aglycone. In the present study we used digitonin as a representative steroidal saponin (extracted from Digitalis purpurea) and a mixture of triterpenoid saponins from Quillaja saponaria Molina. The effect of saponins was studied first on monolayers consisting of single lipids characteristic for the given type of biological membrane, and then
