Organic Caucasian yam Seeds (Dioscorea caucasica)

A monocot medicinal plant from the Dioscoreaceae family, a perennial herbaceous vine with twining stems up to 4 meters high. The rhizome is horizontal, long, branched, thick. Leaves are petiolate, heart-shaped-ovate, pointed, with a slightly pubescent lower surface of the blade; the edge is slightly notched, with 9–13 arcuate veins.  

Flowers are small (3–4 millimeters in diameter), unisexual, dioecious, in simple axillary spikes or racemes. The fruit is a capsule with three membranous wings. It blooms in May–June, bears fruit in July–September.  

Caucasian dioscorea is a relict plant, and its distribution area is small. It is found mainly in the western regions of Transcaucasia in the lower forest belt at an altitude of 400–1000 meters (according to the Red Book of the RSFSR, up to 1600 meters) above sea level (Abkhazia and Adler district of Krasnodar Territory), on shallow carbonate soils. The total distribution area is about 15,000 hectares, of which a significantly smaller part has commercial value.  

Due to the small distribution of the species in the natural environment, the reserves of medicinal raw materials are very limited (in 1983 the total biological reserve of rhizomes of wild dioscorea did not exceed 500 tons, which with an average annual harvesting volume of 30–40 tons threatened depletion of natural reserves within 10 years) and in the 1980s steps were taken to cultivate Caucasian dioscorea, which at that stage were unsuccessful, leading to a decrease in the collection of wild dioscorea. The largest reserves of raw materials in the 1980s were concentrated in the Gagra district.  

The average weight of rhizomes in commercial thickets for plants aged 10–20 years ranges from 10 to 50 grams, while in areas previously unused for harvesting, the raw weight of rhizomes at the age of 15–20 years can reach 100–135 grams, and in some cases exceed 200 grams. Recovery of reserves occurs slowly, in natural conditions taking 15–20 years. The average annual growth per shoot is from 1 to 9 grams of raw weight (from 5 to 33 kilograms per hectare of thickets, which throughout the distribution area amounts to 75 tons of raw or 37.5 tons of dry raw materials per year).  

Harvesting of Caucasian dioscorea is carried out in spring or late autumn, during fruiting. After the plant is dug out with a pickaxe, the above-ground parts are cut off, soil and rotten areas are removed from the rhizomes. The rhizomes are cut into thin pieces 2–4 millimeters thick and 5–7 centimeters long and dried in a dark place, laid out in a thin layer, or in dryers.  

Chemical composition  

Caucasian dioscorea is the most valuable of the genus Dioscorea, as it contains three times more steroid glycosides (up to 25%) in the rhizome than Dioscorea nipponica. The main part of saponins is dioscin, which breaks down into glucose, rhamnose, and diosgenin. It is known that the saponins contained in dioscorea combine both with cholesterol and with blood proteins. They destroy the protein-lipoid complex, which is the basis for the development of atherosclerotic changes.  

In official medicine, Caucasian dioscorea is recommended for atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels. In this case, headaches, irritability, fatigue, tinnitus usually decrease or disappear, mood, sleep, memory improve, vision improves. The tincture of Caucasian dioscorea reduces cholesterol levels, has a vasodilating effect, lowers blood pressure. The infusion improves heart function, reduces angina attacks, improves coronary blood flow (in the heart), slows the pulse (relieves tachycardia — rapid heartbeat), that is, it is indicated for rapid heartbeat. It dilates peripheral vessels.