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Dioscorea bulbifera L.
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English Name |
Air Potato, Airpotato Yam, Air potato Yam |
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Latin name |
Dioscorea bulbifera L. |
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Family & Genus |
Dioscoreaceae, Dioscorea |
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Description |
Winding herbaceous lianes. Tubers oval to oblong, brown, surface with dense, many slender fibrous roots. Stem cylindrical, laevoclination, glabrous. Simple leaves alternate; petiole shorter than the leaves; leaves broad ovate cordate or ovate cordate, 5-16(-26)cm long, 2-14(-26)cm wide, caudate-apex acuminate, margin entire or sinuolate, glabrous; varying sizes, purple-brown spherical or oval bulbil (bulbil) within the axil, 1-3cm in diameter, with circular spots outside. Flowers unisexual, dioecious; male flowers inflorescence spike-like drooping, often several flowers clustered in leaf axils, sometimes basal inflorescence extending and arranging in a cone-shape; male flowers solitary densely, base with two oval bracts; tepals lanceolate, purple when fresh; stamens 6, borne in the base of perianth, filaments same length as anthers; female inflorescence similar as male inflorescence, often two to several clustering in the axil, 20-50cm long, staminodes 6, only 1/4 of tepal length. Capsule reflexed ptosis, triangular-shaped oblong, 1.5-3cm long, 0.5-1.5cm wide, round at both ends, light yellow when ripe, dense purple spots on the surface. Seeds dark brown, flat oval, usually two. Two borne in the apex of central axis of each chamber, seed wing chestnut-brown, extending to the top of seed, oblong. Flowering: July to October, fruiting: August to November. |
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Distribution |
Growing by ravines at altitude below 2000m, sewer in valleys or miscellaneous forest margins. Distributed in East, South-central and Southwest China, Shaanxi, Gansu, Taiwan and etc. The medicinal materials are mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and etc. |
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Part Used |
Medical part: tuber and puce bulbil in axil. Chinese name: tuber: Huangyaozi. Puce bulbil in axil: Huangdulingyuzi. |
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Harvest & Processing |
Tuber: excavated Hungyaozi after 2-3years of planting, taken those over 3cm, wash off sediment, cut off fibril, transect into 1cm-long pieces, sun-dried or dried over fire, or used fresh. Bulbel: harvested in later summer and early autumn, used fresh or sliced, and sun-dried. |
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Chemistry |
Tubers contain diosbulbin A-H, 8-epidiosbulbin E acetate, diosgenin, D-sorbitol, 7-tetrahydroxy-9, 10-dihydro phenanthrene, 2, 4, 5, 6-tetrahydroxyphenanthrene, etc.; also sucrose, reducing sugar, starch and tannin, etc. |
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Pharmacology |
Anti-bacterial and anti-tumors and resistant to thyroid enlargement. |
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Properties & Actions |
Tuber: bitter, cold, mild-toxic. Bulbel: bitter, pungent, cold, mild-toxic.Cubes: dissipating binds-goiter, clearing heat-toxin, cooling blood and relieving hemorrhage. Bulbel: clearing heat for dissipating phlegm, suppressing cough and asthma, dissipating binds and detoxifying. |
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Indications & Usage |
Stem tuber: goiter and tumor, anthracia and sores, venomous snake bites, tumor, hematemesis, non-traumatic hemorrhage, empsyxis, whooping cough, coughing with lung heat. Bulblet: coughing with lung heat, whooping cough, swelling pain in the throat, goiter and tumor, scrofula, pyocutaneous disease and swelling, bites by snakes and dogs.Tuber: oral administration: decocting, 3-9g; or made as medicinal liquor; powdered, 1-2g. External application: appropriate amount, fresh products smashed for application; or powdered for application; or smashed to extract juice. Bulbel: oral administration: decocting, 6-15g; or smashed to extract juice, made as medicinal liquor. External application: appropriate amount, sliced for pasting or smashed for application. |
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Examples |
1. Diarrhea: airpotato yam, grind into a powder, swallow 3g each time with boiled water.
2. Infantile hernia: air potato root 30g, 3-leaf five-leaved akebia (fruit), lihe 15g each, plantain seed 9g. Decoct in water and swallow.
3. Whooping cough: lingyuzi 9-15g. Decoct in water, add crystal sugar and swallow.
4. Cough: air potato seeds 4.5-9g. Decoct in water and swallow. |
| Link to |
 Chinese Medicine Specimen Database
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Permanent URL：https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/cmed/mpid/detail.php?herb_id=D00770 |
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