i'm not sure i understand exactly where you want to save this material to?

if you save the file "save as" then yes that material setting is saved, okay? you can also save your settings with a right click, copy, then paste.

if you have a material for jessi and you've taken hours to get her torso just so and now you want to apply that same setting to her legs then control/left click and click all of the nodes you want to transfer over...right click, copy...go to her torso then right click paste.

bling!

Comitted to excellence through art.