Wild Yam Root, Chinese 10:1 Powdered Extract (Dioscorea batatas; Shan yao) 5 kg (11 lbs): Q

The Chinese yam, called Shan Yao in Chinese herbalism, is a sweet soothing herb that stimulates the stomach and spleen and has a tonic effect on the lungs and kidneys. The tuber contains allantoin, a cell-proliferant that speeds the healing process. The root is an ingredient of "The herb of eight ingredients", traditionally prescribed in Chinese herbalism to treat hyperthyroidism, nephritis and diabetes. The Chinese yam is claimed to stimulate appetite and to be a remedy for chronic diarrhea, asthma, fatigue, uncontrollable or frequent urination, diabetes, and emotional instability. Used externally, proponents claim the Chinese yam can speed the healing of boils and abscesses. Herbalists also use it to treat colic because it is thought to relieve spasms. The tuber is cooked. It has a floury texture with a very pleasant flavour that is rather like a potato. The tubers can be boiled, baked, fried, mashed, grated and added to soups. They store well and for a long time, and can also be left in the ground and harvested as required in the winter. This is a top quality root crop, very suitable for use as a staple food. An arrowroot can be extracted from the root, though this is not as good at binding other foods as the starch from D. japonica. In East Indian traditional medicine, wild yam is used for sexual and hormonal problems. Chinese herbalists have long used the herb for rheumatism, asthma, and digestive and urinary complaints The roots of most, if not all, members of this genus, contains diosgenin. This is widely used in modern medicine in order to manufacture progesterone and other steroid drugs. These are used as contraceptives and in the treatment of various disorders of the genitary organs as well as in a host of other diseases such as asthma and arthritis. Mexican Wild Yam, the related Dioscorea mexicana, is the original source of diosgenin, the steroidal saponin used for contraceptive hormone manufacture. Wild yam is helpful with the nausea of pregnant women and dysmenorrhoea. Another compound, dioscoretine, has been shown to lower blood triglycerides and to raise HDL ('good') cholesterol. An extract of wild yam was found to have antioxidant properties. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Much saponin has been found in the roots, and a substance improperly called dioscorein, obtained by precipitating the tincture with water.' 'Medicinal Action and Uses: Antispasmodic. Perhaps the best relief and promptest cure for bilious colic, especially helpful in the nausea of pregnant women. Valuable also in painful cholera morbus with cramps, neuralgic affections, spasmodic hiccough and spasmodic asthma.' Dosage: ½ to 1 drachm of fluid extract. Dioscorein, ¼ to 4 grains. King"™s 1898 Dispensatory: 'In former editions I have termed this agent an antispasmodic, and solely for the reason that it cures bilious colic. And I can truly say that nearly all remedies have thus been classified, not from any pos