A research team has summarized current progress on the yam genome, plastome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, highlighting the nutrient-rich and bioactive compound-laden Dioscorea species.

Wild yam is often used to treat menopausal hot flushes and menstrual cramps, but is there any evidence it works? [Image source: US Dept. of Conservation] Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) was used for pain ...

First discovered in the herbarium of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, as a pressed specimen collected in 1960, the newly named yam species Dioscorea orangeana is restricted to ...

Zanzibar (Pemba Island), Tuber is highly toxic and eating it raw or unprepared can lead to serious sickness, coma and death. To remove the poisonous compounds, it is cut into small pieces and boiled ...

It was a drug produced in Nottingham in the United Kingdom that led us on a journey to South Africa to visit muthi markets, archives, herbariums and nature reserves. We spoke with traders, healers, ...

Yams are tuber crops and an essential staple food in West Africa. But the traditional cropping systems are unproductive and degrade soil. The YAMSYS project seeks to change this in cooperation with ...

Speak of fossils, and dinosaurs first come to mind. A quaint fossilised leaf is one of the most recent finds throwing light on India's past. The leaf fossil is the first of Dioscorea yams from Asia ...