14 Benefits and Effects of Chinese Yam: Keep These Contraindications and Precautions in Mind

Chinese yam, also known as shuyu, tushu, shanshuyu, huai yam, huai shan, and white yam, is a plant that can be stir-fried and also used as medicine.Do you know all 14 benefits and effects of Chinese yam? What are its contraindications?

I. Introduction to Chinese Yam

1. Morphology of Chinese yam: Chinese yam is a herbaceous vine of the Dioscoreaceae family. Its rhizome is club-shaped, 33 to 66 cm long, and can reach more than 100 cm at its longest. The roots are few and branched, with white roots bearing many fibrous roots, sticky, and the stem in cross-section is slender, reaching over 3 m. The leaves are opposite, variable in shape, often heart-shaped or lobed and palmate, with 6 to 9 veins. Bulbils (called lingyuzi, also known as yam beans or yam eggs) grow in the leaf axils and can serve as propagation material and are also edible. The flowers are small, white, and solitary, forming capsules.

2. Growing environment and distribution of Chinese yam: Chinese yam requires fertile, well-drained sandy soil and prefers warm, sunny locations, but fears frost and cannot be continuously cropped. It originated in Asia, and has been cultivated in China since ancient times. It is cultivated throughout the north and south, and also grows wild. It is mainly produced in Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, and other places.

II. Benefits and Effects of Chinese Yam

1. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: nourishing and strengthening the body, delaying aging. Chinese yam has effects such as nourishing cells, strengthening the endocrine system, tonifying and strengthening, and enhancing the body's hematopoietic function. It can induce interferon, improve immune function, and increase disease resistance, playing an important role in delaying the aging process.

2. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: astringing and securing the intestines to stop diarrhea. Chinese yam is sweet in taste, tonifying without being cloying, fragrant without being drying, and is effective in treating diarrhea due to spleen deficiency. Chinese yam is a mild tonic and strengthening medicine that strengthens the spleen, benefits the stomach, and loosens the intestines, with good efficacy for chronic diarrhea due to reduced gastrointestinal function.

3. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: preventing and treating coronary heart disease with arteriosclerosis. Chinese yam has the effect of regulating the endocrine system and tonifying qi to unblock the vessels, and can improve coronary artery and microcirculatory blood flow, treating coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, and so on.

4. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: benefiting intelligence and strengthening the brain. Chinese yam is rich in nutrients and contains starch, protein, mucilage, and other nutrients. In particular, the amylase it contains has the effect of hydrolyzing starch into glucose, directly providing energy to the brain, and plays an important role in brain health.

5. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: tonifying deficiency and lowering blood sugar, treating diabetes. Chinese yam is mild in nature and flavor, neither cold nor dry, and can replenish the five viscera, making it an important medicine for treating deficiency syndromes. Diabetes is mainly caused by yin deficiency and dryness-heat, and for wasting and thirsting due to yin deficiency and dryness-heat, Chinese yam can be eaten for its yin-nourishing effect, so Chinese yam can treat diabetes.

6. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: benefiting and supplementing qi, relieving cough and calming wheezing. Chinese yam has the effects of tonifying the lungs and benefiting qi, nourishing yin and relieving cough, and regulating the lungs and resolving phlegm. It can treat lung deficiency with insufficient qi and yin, shortness of breath with chronic cough, and deficiency wheezing, among others. Chinese yam has effects such as nutritional tonification, inducing interferon, enhancing immunity, regulating the endocrine system, relieving cough and resolving phlegm, and calming wheezing, and can treat chronic bronchitis.

7. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: weight loss and beauty, skin care and complexion improvement. Chinese yam contains large amounts of starch and protein, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, glucose, crude protein amino acids, choline, allantoin, and so on. Regular consumption can make the skin rosy and radiant, restoring a youthful appearance. For patients with ichthyosis, eating Chinese yam over the long term can make the skin fair, smooth, and moisturized.

8. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: replenishing essence and securing the kidneys, enhancing sexual function. Regular consumption of Chinese yam can replenish essence and secure the kidneys, with significant efficacy in treating frequent urination.

9. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: rich in organic germanium, treating cancer. Chinese yam is rich in many trace elements beneficial to the human body, especially organic germanium, and the element germanium has anti-cancer effects. Chinese yam has the characteristics of warming and tonifying without being abrupt, and being mildly fragrant without being drying, so it is very suitable for dietary therapy for cancer patients.

10. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: enhancing the human body's digestion and absorption function, treating poor appetite and indigestion. Chinese yam can strengthen the spleen and benefit the stomach, enabling the spleen and stomach to function well, enhancing the body's digestion and absorption functions, improving appetite, and strengthening the constitution. It has very good efficacy for poor appetite, anorexia in children, and indigestion.

11. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: softening hardness and dissipating masses, treating red swollen indurations, hard unruptured nodules, and other conditions. Applying mashed Chinese yam externally has the effect of softening hardness and dissipating masses, treating red swollen indurations, hard unruptured nodules, and other conditions. It also has relatively good efficacy for inflammatory conditions such as mastitis, breast swelling and pain, boils, and frostbite.

12. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: strengthening bones, treating osteomalacia. After the mucopolysaccharide substances in Chinese yam combine with inorganic salts, they can form bone substance, giving cartilage a certain elasticity, so it has a certain efficacy for osteomalacia.

13. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: preventing atrophy of connective tissue and preventing the occurrence of collagen disease. Chinese yam can prevent atrophy of connective tissue in the liver and kidneys, can prevent the occurrence of collagen disease, and maintains the lubrication of the digestive tract, respiratory tract, and joint cavities.

14. Benefit and effect of Chinese yam: tonifying the middle and benefiting qi, and can make a person's ears and eyes sharp. Chinese yam harmonizes the middle and boosts strength, grows muscles, and strengthens yin. Regular consumption of Chinese yam can make a person's ears and eyes sharp, lighten the body and prevent hunger, and prolong life.

III. Contraindications of Chinese Yam

1. People with symptoms of dryness-heat, fever from common cold, or dry bound stools should eat it with caution;

2. Chinese yam is incompatible with gansui (Euphorbia kansui) and must not be used together, nor should it be taken at the same time as alkaline drugs. While taking Chinese yam, do not eat raw scallions.

3. The skin of Chinese yam can easily cause skin allergies, so it is best to peel it before eating. After peeling Chinese yam, wash your hands immediately to avoid touching other skin. If the skin itches, you can apply cooking oil to relieve it.

IV. Price of Chinese Yam

1. The table below shows the prices of Chinese yam in the Hengyang and Yueyang areas of Hunan, for reference only.

2. Chinese yam planting benefits:

Planting cost: seedlings cost about 4 yuan per jin, and one mu needs about 250 jin, planting about 2,300 plants. If using yam beans, one mu needs about 80 jin, and the price is also about 4 yuan per jin.

Planting income: the average yield of Chinese yam reaches 3,000 kg per mu, with a total yield of 1,098 tons. The market wholesale price of Chinese yam is 6 yuan/kg. After deducting total costs, the net income per mu can reach 9,400 yuan to 10,000 yuan. If refrigerated and brought to market in April to May of the following year, the net income per mu can be further increased.

At present, although the planting prospects for Chinese yam look good, it is still necessary to always pay attention to market trends, and not blindly expand or reduce production.