Elephant Food Yam

Overview

The plant species is originated from South and Southeast Asia. The plant is also widely distributed in Indonesia and can grow in gardens, rice fields, and pond edges. The plant is traditionally used as a food supplement, in fish food, and in cultural ceremonies. 

Vernacular Names

Suweg (Indonesia), you bing mo yu (China), suranah (Sanskrit).

Agroecology

Elephant food yam thrives on secondary forests and highly disturbed areas. The plant can grow in partial shade or fully exposed conditions in fertile and well-drained black or sandy loam soil. The plant may occur in seal level up until 800 m altitudes. A hot and humid condition is preferable.

Morphology

• Roots - roots are modified into the fleshy tuber, tuber dark brown, depressed globose, annulate, with root scars visually prominent.
• Stems - above-ground stem absent and replaced by stem-like leaf stalk, the leaf stalk is solitary, flashy, green with pale green dots pattern.
• Leaves - the leaf blade is divided into numerous leaflets, the leaflets are green or pale green, orbicular, oval, ovate, obovate, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, elliptic-lanceolate, or lanceolate.
• Flowers - held by a single spadix, the spathe is dark brown or maroon inside, pale green with white spot outside, the spathe is velvet-like, funnel-shaped, the flower produces an unpleasant odor. 
• Fruits - berries, elongated, green to yellow or bright red during maturation, in close or slightly distant arrangement.

Cultivation

Easily propagated by tuber. 

Chemical Constituents

Protein, carbohydrates, flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, and saponin.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The plant species tubers are traditionally used to treat various health conditions including digestive complaints such as vomit, anorexia, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, and constipation.
• The same organ is also used to treat breath-related medical conditions such as cough, bronchitis, and asthma.
• The tuber is also believed to treat anemia, seminal weakness, fatigue, dysmenorrhoea, liver problem, tumor, hemorrhoids, and numerous illnesses. The tuber is also can be used as a tonic and aphrodisiac.