All articles A–Z

Dioscorea alata

Dioscorea alata, greater yam, water yam, purple yam, or ube, is a wing-stemmed climbing yam from tropical Asia and Melanesia, cultivated for starchy tubers and domesticated independently in Asia and the Pacific.

Oct 20, 2026

Dioscorea rotundata

Dioscorea rotundata, white Guinea yam or white yam, is a West African domesticated yam of hybrid origin (D. praehensilis x D. abyssinica) from the Niger River basin, the main yam of the yam belt, grown for starchy tubers used in pounded yam.

Dioscoreaceae

Dioscoreaceae, the yam family (R.Br., 1810), is a pantropical monocot family in Dioscoreales with about 650 species in four genera, dominated by Dioscorea (over 600 species), the source of edible yams and steroidal saponins.

Dioscoreales

Dioscoreales, an order of monocot flowering plants with the families Dioscoreaceae, Nartheciaceae, and Burmanniaceae; its genus Dioscorea (634 species) contains the yams, a tropical staple crop grown mainly in West Africa.

Sep 19, 2026

Dioscurides (admiral)

Dioscurides (Greek: Διοσκουρίδης) was a naval commander in the fleet of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, active in the Aegean in 314–313 BC during the Third War of the Diadochi.

Sep 19, 2026

Dioscurides (Ptolemaic courtier)

Dioscurides (Greek: Διοσκουρίδης) was a court official of Ptolemaic Egypt who rose through honorific titles to become dioiketes, the central finance minister in Alexandria, serving until around 149/8 BC.

Diosdado Cabello

Diosdado Cabello Rondón is a Venezuelan politician, PSUV secretary general since 2025 and interior minister since August 2024, briefly acting president during the April 2002 coup.

Diosdado Macapagal

Diosdado Pangan Macapagal (1910–1997), ninth President of the Philippines 1961–1965 and vice president 1957–1961; enacted the 1963 Agricultural Land Reform Code, decontrolled foreign exchange in 1962, filed the Sabah claim, and proposed MAPHILINDO.

Diosgenin

Diosgenin is a steroidal sapogenin, a plant-derived steroid found mainly in Dioscorea wild yams and used as the starting material for cortisone, progesterone, and other steroid drugs.

Diosmin

Diosmin is a flavone glycoside found in citrus peel, used as a venoactive drug for chronic venous insufficiency and hemorrhoids and sold over the counter.

Diospyros

Diospyros (persimmon, ebony) is a genus of about 700-800 Ebenaceae trees and shrubs, pantropical in range, known for D. kaki fruit, ebony timber, and naphthoquinone chemistry.

Diospyros kaki

Diospyros kaki (Oriental, Japanese, or Chinese persimmon; kaki; Sharon fruit) is a hexaploid Ebenaceae tree native to China, cultivated over 2,000 years, with PCNA non-astringent cultivars like Fuyu and astringent ones like Hachiya.

Diospyros melanoxylon

Diospyros melanoxylon (tendu, kendu, Coromandel ebony), an Ebenaceae tree native to India and Sri Lanka, whose leaves wrap bidis, supporting over 12 million livelihoods, and which yields triterpenes with reported antidiabetic activity.

Oct 20, 2026

Diospyros virginiana

Diospyros virginiana, American or common persimmon (possumwood, simmon), a slow-growing dioecious Ebenaceae tree of the eastern and central United States with frost-sweetened orange fruit, hard ebony-like wood, and use as rootstock for Diospyros kaki.

Oct 22, 2026

Dioura attack

The Dioura attacks are repeated jihadist assaults since 2019 on the Malian army camp at Dioura, in the Mopti region of central Mali, carried out mainly by JNIM.

Diourbel, Senegal

Diourbel (région de Diourbel) is a central Senegalese region, capital Diourbel, departments Diourbel, Bambey, Mbacké; 2.14 million people in 2024, 66.9% urban, home to Touba and the Mouride Grand Magal, in the Groundnut Basin.

Dioxacarb

Dioxacarb (Elocron, Famid, Rovlinka), CAS 6988-21-2, is a phenyl methylcarbamate insecticide and reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor with high acute toxicity (LD50 <50 mg/kg); not approved as a plant protection active substance in the EU.

Dioxathion

Dioxathion (Delnav), CAS 78-34-2, an organophosphate cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticide and acaricide for ticks and mites on livestock and crops; cis/trans isomer mixture, now cancelled in the US and not EU-approved.

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (PCDDs, PCDFs, dioxin-like PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants formed as combustion and industrial by-products; TCDD is the most toxic congener, over 90% of human exposure is dietary, and toxicity is scaled with WHO TEFs.

Dioxolane

1,3-Dioxolane is a five-membered cyclic acetal with two oxygen atoms in its ring, a clear liquid used as an industrial solvent and a protecting group for aldehydes and ketones.

Sep 29, 2026

Dip coating

Dip coating is a wet-chemical deposition method that forms thin films by immersing a substrate in a coating solution and withdrawing it at a controlled rate.

Dip pen

Dip pen (nib pen): a writing instrument with a metal nib in a holder and no ink reservoir, recharged by dipping into an inkwell. Mass-produced from 1822 in Birmingham; now used for calligraphy, illustration, comics, and ink testing.

DIP switch

A DIP switch is a small bank of manual switches on a circuit board, set by hand to configure hardware. Developed in the early 1970s.

Oct 20, 2026

Dip2-like domain

Dip2-like domain (InterPro IPR037337), a conserved domain of disco-interacting protein 2 (DIP2) homologs, related to adenylate-forming enzymes; DIP2 proteins carry two such AFD domains plus a DMAP1-binding domain and act in lipid and neuronal maintenance.