Medicinal plants in genusLagerstroemiawere investigated for phytochemical contents by GC‐MS and HPLC with ethanol and hexane extracts and their toxicity MTT and comet assay on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).γ‐Sitosterol is the major component found in all species at 14.70–34.44%. All of the extracts, except forL. speciosaethanol extract, showed high percentages of cell viability. The IC₅₀value, 0.24 mg/mL, of ethanolL. speciosaextract predicted an LD₅₀of 811.78 mg/kg, which belongs to WHO Class III of toxic chemicals. However, in‐depth toxicity evaluation by the comet assay showed that the four tested species induced significant (p< 0.05) DNA damage in PBMCs.γ‐Sitosterol was previously reported to possess antihyperglycemic activity by increasing insulin secretion in response to glucose. Nonetheless, consumers should consider its toxicity, and the amount of consumption should be of concern.

The chloroplast genomes of Dioscorea brevipetiolata, D. depauperata, D. glabra, and D. pyrifolia are 153,370–153,503 bp in size. A total of 113 genes were predicted, including 79 protein-coding sequences (CDS), 30 tRNA, and four rRNA genes. The overall GC content for all four species was 37%. Only mono-, di-, and trinucleotides were present in the genome. Genes adjacent to the junction borders were similar in all species analyzed. Eight distinct indel variations were detected in the chloroplast genome alignment of 24 Dioscorea species. At a cut-off point of Pi = 0.03, a sliding window analysis based on 25 chloroplast genome sequences of Dioscorea species revealed three highly variable regions, which included three CDS (trnC, ycf1, and rpl32), as well as an intergenic spacer region, ndhF-rpl32. A phylogenetic tree based on the complete chloroplast genome sequence displayed an almost fully resolved relationship in Dioscorea. However, D. brevipetiolata, D. depauperata, and D. glabra were clustered together with D. alata, while D. pyrifolia was closely related to D. aspersa. As Dioscorea is a diverse genus, genome data generated in this study may contribute to a better understanding of the genetic identity of these species, which would be useful for future taxonomic work of Dioscorea.