Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Yam is an important dietary element for Nigerian and West African people. It contributes more than 200 calories per person per day for more than 150 million people in West Africa, and is an important source of income. Yam is an attractive crop in poor farms with limited resources. It is rich in starch, and can be prepared in many ways.
Some of the English common names of this plant reflect its use in Native American and other traditional medicines. [15] Native Americans in the southeast cultivated this plant. [ 16 ] In traditional Russian herbal medicine, saponin extracts from the roots of various varieties of wild yam are thought to be an anticoagulant , antisclerotic ...
Dioscorea bulbifera (commonly known as the air potato, air yam, bitter yam, cheeky yam, potato yam, [2] aerial yam, [3] and parsnip yam [4]) is a species of true yam in the yam family, Dioscoreaceae. It is native to Africa, Asia and northern Australia. [ 1 ]
Dioscorea alata – also called ube (/ ˈ uː b ɛ,-b eɪ /), ubi, purple yam, or greater yam, among many other names – is a species of yam (a tuber). The tubers are usually a vivid violet - purple to bright lavender in color (hence the common name), but some range in color from cream to plain white.
During the 1950s scientists found that the roots of wild yams contained diosgenin which is a plant-based estrogen; diosgenin is hypothesized to aid in chemical defense against herbivores. This was used to create the first birth control pills during the 60s. [9] In addition, some Dioscorea species are rich in nutrients and antioxidants.
Dioscorea esculenta, commonly known as the lesser yam, is a yam species native to Island Southeast Asia and introduced to Near Oceania and East Africa by early Austronesian voyagers. It is grown for their edible tubers , though it has smaller tubers than the more widely-cultivated Dioscorea alata and is usually spiny.
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, the elephant foot yam [4] or whitespot giant arum, [5] [6] is a tropical plant native to Island Southeast Asia.It is cultivated for its edible tubers in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Madagascar, New Guinea, and the Pacific islands.
Dioscorea mexicana, Mexican yam or cabeza de negro is a species of yam in the genus Dioscorea. [1]Dioscorea mexicana is a caudiciform dioscorea having either a partly to completely above-ground dome-shaped caudex with a thick, woody outer layer up to 3 feet (90 cm) in diameter and 8–10 inches (20 to 25 cm) in height.