Day 5
Medicinal plant: 005

Introduction

Air yam is a herbal medicinal plants widely cultivated in many regions. It is also known as up yam in Nigerian Pidgin English since it is cultivated more for its bulbils than for it's tubers. It is a plant of yam family, so it is a species of true yam. The local name of Air yam is Githha, Vyakur, Ban Tarul. The scientific name of Air yam is Dioscorea bulbifera. It belongs to Dioscoreaceae family. Rhizome are the major part used for medicines. It is used mainly in the treatment throat sore. Basically, rhizome powder or liquid is very fruitful for medical purpose.

It is also used to treat conjunctivitis, diarrhea and dysentery. For this air potato is used. It is very popular in Australia since it is used in their important ceremony called kulama. In this ceremony, the tubers are cooked and eaten in the third day ritually. While in some places like Florida, it is taken as an invasive species. It is considered as a noxious weed because of its quick growing, large leafed vine that spreads tenaciously and shades out plants growing beneath it.

These varieties contain steroid diosgenin that is used for manufacture of number of steroidal hormones. It is also found that wild form can be used and can be used for eating after drying and boiling. The leaf beetle has been studied and employed as an agent of biological pest control for the plant. This plant spread and reproduce by means of bulbis. The spread of air yam is very rapid due to their ability to sprout at very small stage. The vine has small white flowers. The fruits are capsules. This plant having medicinal benefits do have some challenges of rapid spread and certain acute toxicity effects if unknown wild species are taken.

Source:
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