甙 (dài): glycoside (old chemistry term,…

Meanings

1 glycoside (old chemistry term, displaced by 苷)

Characters

甙

dài

glycoside

Examples

车前、甘草、陈皮都含甙。

Chēqián, gāncǎo, chénpí dōu hán dài.

Plantain seeds, licorice and tangerine peel all contain glycosides.

人参皂甙是典型的植物甙类化合物。

Rénshēn zào dài shì diǎnxíng de zhíwù dài lèi huàhéwù.

Ginseng saponins are a typical class of plant glycosides.

Tips

usage

甙 is the older Chinese chemistry term for 'glycoside' — a class of organic compounds in which a sugar is bonded to a non-sugar molecule. The PRC chemistry standards committee replaced it with 苷 in 1956, but the older spelling persists in pharmacology, traditional-medicine writing and many monograph titles.

memory

Mnemonic: the character is a one-shot pictograph — 弋 (a stake or marker, here phonetic giving dài) sits on top of 甘 (sweet, the sugar half). 'Marker on sugar' = a sugar attached to something else = glycoside. Almost a coined logogram for the chemistry concept.

register

Scientific / traditional-medicine register. Modern textbooks prefer 苷; legacy literature and pharmacopoeia entries still use 甙. Both terms appear in pharmacy practice — don't confuse the two readings.

Components

radical

甘 gān

sweet

Bottom 甘 (Kangxi #99, sweet) — the sugar half of the chemistry concept. Together with the dài phonetic the graph reads 'a dài-class sweet substance' = glycoside. Indexed under 甘.

phonetic

弋 yì

stake; arrow with cord (here phonetic)

Top 弋 (a small bent stake or hunting-arrow with cord) — phonetic for the dài reading. Same phonetic in 代, 袋, 贷.