Air Potato: Best Herb for Physical Strength, Stamina and Infertility (Dioscorea Bulbifera)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Air potato is a prime staple medicinal food substitute for the rural and tribal people, they follow different traditional practices to make them edible as a food supplements. Since time immemorial, Air Potato is used as tonic and rejuvenating herb in traditional medicine.

It is bitter in taste; to remove its bitterness, tubers are soaked in water overnight or left overnight in stream and subjected to successive boiling. Tubers are then roasted and cooked as vegetable.

In Latin America, the tubers are used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, conjunctivitis, fatigue, and depression. In China, tubers are used in sore throat, rabies, snake poisoning, food poisoning, hepatic fibrosis, gastric and rectal carcinoma and goiter.

Sushrut for the first time described it as a Rasayana drug and used it for the treatment of Mutraghata and Kushta. Sushrut has included Air potato among the ashtadasha some sadrishvriya oushada and describes that it has the potency to regenerate and look like a black snake.

Commercially, Air potato is an important drug as it is a good source of starch, used in poultry, livestock feed, and production of yam flour. The steroidal sapogenins and diosgenin are used as precursors for the synthesis of steroidal hormones and contraceptive drugs.

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2. Common Names

• Family – Dioscoreaceae
• Hindi Name – Barhakand, Zami kanda
• English Name – Air Potato, Potato Yam

3. Vernacular Names

Assamese – Kathalu

• Bengali – Ratalu
• Gujarati – Dukkarkanda
• Kannada – Kunta Genusu
• Konkani - Kongadde
• Marathi – Dukkarkanda
• Tamil – Kodikilangu
• Telugu – Kaya Pendazam
• Punjabi – Zamin khand

4. Synonyms

• Varda – It enhances physical strength and stamina.
• Vaahvadana – The tuber externally is rough and resembles the surface of pig.
• Grishti – The tuber is irregular in shape.
• Charmakaraluka – The surface of the tuber is rough and leathery.

5. Distribution

It is found throughout India ascending up to 1,800 m in the Himalayas, Chota Nagpur Plateau, Orrisa, Bihar and West coast and East coast district. It is also widely cultivated in the Konkan region.

6. Classical Categorization

• Charaka Samhita – Not mentioned
• Sushrut Samhita – Not mentioned
• Ashtanga Samhita - Not mentioned
• Dhanvantari Nighantu – Karviradi varga
• Madanpal Nighantu – Abhayadi varga
• Kaiyadev Nighantu – Oshadhi varga
• Raj Nighantu – Mulakadi varga
• Bhavaprakasha Nighantu – Guduchyadi varga

7. Morphology

It is a dextrorotatory glabrous climbing herb, 5 to 10m long with perennial tuberous roots, Stem green, coiled, with longitudinal lines on it.

Leaves – Simple, alternate, with 1- to 3-inch-long petiole, cordate with deep notch, 2 to 6 inch long, 1-to-4-inch width, prominent 7 to 9 veins, entire margin, acuminate or caudate apex, glaucous surface.

Flowers – Separate male and female inflorescence on the same plant. Flowers are axillary, white-colored flowers, pendulous 4 to 10 inch long.

Fruits – Quadrantally oblong triquetrous capsule, found attached opposite to petiole. Seeds winged at one end, two per locule.

Tuber – Underground, solitary, variable in size, globose-pyriform shape, purplish black externally, internally yellow, clothed with thick fibrous secondary roots, and mucilaginous.

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8. Ayurvedic Properties

• Rasa (Taste): It has Madhur, Tikta (sweet, bitter) taste.
• Virya (Potency): It is Sheeta in nature (cold).
• Vipaka (Post-digestive taste): It is Katu, Kaiyadev N. and Madhur (pungent) taste.
• Guna (Qualities) – Laghu, Snigdh

9. Chemical Constituent

It has alkaloids, dihydrodioscorine, glycoside, proteins, fats, starch, sterols, polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, steroidal sapogenin, spirostane glycoside, sinodiosgenin and fatty acids.

10. Identity, Purity, and Strength

• Foreign Matter – Not more than 2%
• Total Ash – Not more than 6%
• Acid-insoluble ash – Not more than 1%
• Alcohol-soluble extractive – Not less than 3%
• Water-soluble extractive – Not less than 9%

(Source: The Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia of India 2004)

11. Ayurvedic and Pharmacological Actions

Ayurvedic Actions

Classical texts have attributed it as aphrodisiac, enhances life expectancy, promotes voice, complexion promoter, tonic, cardiac tonic, rejuvenator, enhances digestive fire, laxative, diuretic, anthelmintic, and blood purifier properties to it.

• Doshakarma – Kapha vatahara
• Dhatukarma – Rasayana
• Malakarma – Anuloman, mutral

Pharmacological Actions

It is purgative, aphrodisiac, rejuvenating, tonic, anthelmintic, antioxidant, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antistress, diuretic and immunomodulatory properties.

12. Health Benefits

The Air potato is used traditionally for the treatment of skin disease, diabetes, worm infestation, pruritus, wounds, impotency, general debility, pain, blood-borne diseases, goiter. It is also used in hemoptysis, pyogenic infections, scrofula, syphilis, hemorrhoids, flatulence, diarrhea, dysentery and polyuria.

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13. Therapeutic Uses

Sinus – Air potato is made into decoction, emulsified in oil, then applied on infected ulcers, sinus, and pus pockets.

Wounds – The dried powdered air potato is applied externally on ulcers.

Rejuvenator – Powder of Air potato mixed with honey and taken with milk for a month as a health tonic and rejuvenator. During this period a person should take only milk, and boiled rice in diet.

Infertility – Powder of Air potato, Vidarikand, Ashwagandha and Shatavari churna in equal quantity should be taken with milk and ghee twice daily in infertility.

Debility – Powder of Air potato, Ashwagandha, Mulethi and Mishri in equal quantity with milk twice daily is used in debility.

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14. Official Part Used

Tuber

15. General Doses

Powder – 3 to 6 g

16. Formulations

Narasimha churna, Panchnimba churna, Vastyamayantka ghrita and Shiva gutika.