Origin: Deciduous woods, thickets, swamps, and wet woods.

Uses: This herb is used as an expectorant, emetic, antispasmodic, and diaphoretic.

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Native Americans made wild yam root tea to ease labor pains and relieve morning sickness. European settlers used the plant for rheumatism, muscle spasms, and intestinal disorders - leading to its being called “colic root.” Dioscin in the roots of this species breaks down to diosgenin, which can be pharmaceutically converted to sex hormones. Using wild yams for its diosgenin substrate made it possible to manufacture progesterone-containing birth control pills at a reasonable cost prior to 1970, when progesterone could be made synthetically. Dioscin also made possible the manufacture of corticosteroid hormones with anti-inflammatory properties.
Toxicity:
It is recommended that this herbal remedy should not be taken during pregnancy or while taking other estrogen-containing medicines, although plant-derived diosgenin is not converted to hormones in the body.

Part used::
Tubers, Roots

Origin:
America

1) A guide to medicinal plants of Appalachia/ Krochmal, Arnold; Walter, Russel S.; Doughty, Richard M.: USA: U.S.D.A Forest Service:,1959

2) Hull, Kathleen; Photog. Hull, Meredith /Indiana Medical History Museum: Guide to the Medicinal Plant Garden./ USA: Indiana Medical History Museum. 2010. -- p. 58.