Dioscorea HISPIDA Dennstedt
| Synonym : | Dioscorea daemona Roxb. Dioscorea hirsuta Dennst. Dioscorea triphylla L. Helmia daemona (Roxb.) Kunth Helmia hirsuta (Blume) Kunth |
|---|---|
| Bangla Name : | Lomaalu (B), Craw- dow (Murang), Chaiaibu (Pangkhua), Mraa-aphru-bawn (Rakhaing), |
| English Name : | Wild yam (E) |
| Family : | Dioscoreaceae |
| Disease : | Whitlow, sores and boils. |
| Description : | A tuberous twiner, tubers small, polymorphic, stem twining to the left, clothed with some prickles, bulbils small, globose, warty. Leaves tri-foliolate, leaflets 14-24 cm long, elliptic-oblong, lateral ones obliquely elliptic, with 3-nerved base, glabrous or hairy above, sparsely hairy, especially on the veins beneath. Male flowers in dense spike, arranged in clusters along the rachis of a raceme. Spikes bearing female flowers, single or in pairs. Fruit a refluxed capsule, oblong in outline, 4-5 cm long, winged. |
| Distribution : | Forests of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts. |
| Chemical Constituents : | Tubers contain alkaloid dioscorine & 4-epidioscorine and a neuromuscular blocking agent (Asolkar et al.,1992) and up to 81.89% carbohydrate (Anon 1952). |
| Uses : | Tubers are poisonous, ethnic people use the tubers for ulcer to kill worms in wounds and as fish poison, also for hunting purposes. Different plant parts are used in whitlow, sores, boils and bites of rabbit, jackel or dog. |
| Habit : | - |