Saponin is a class of glycosides, found widely in plants, like soybeans, soapwort and aloe vera. They have detergent properties and form a lather when shaken with water. Their presence in plants is thought to act as a deterrent to herbivores- they are bitter-tasting and cause gastric irritation if ingested. They are also highly toxic to fish. If injected into the bloodstream they disrupt red cells, through their effects on cell membranes.

 

I need to know what does it do to the cell membrane/cell wall, and it's effects on it. I've tried searching google and yahoo but nothing helpful came up. Has anyone done research on saponin, or can direct me to informative saponin websites?

If they have detergent properties it is likely that they bond with the lipids in the membrane, like soap does with fat, a hydrophobic/hydrophobic interaction. So its possible they somehow disrupt the fluidity of the cell membrane and thus stop the cell functioning properly.

 

Edit: just an educated guess..... don't use that in your assignment

try this, it maybe a better search: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22saponin%22++cell+membrane

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1764979&dopt=Abstract

Saponin, a detergent like molecule, can permeabilize cell membranes without destroying them,

Detergents permeabilise cell membranes. That means they will disrupt cell membranes to some degree and will therefore interfere with homeostasis in a living cell because they will "punch holes " in the membrane and allow the influx/efflux of ions, water and other solutes etc. Therefore, ion pumps, exchangers, water channels etc. will all be affected and the balance of ions and water inside the cell will be affected.

Thanks for all the help It took one helluva long time but it's done now.