Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
| Elephant foot yam | |
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| File:ചേന.jpg | |
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A. paeoniifolius
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| Binomial name | |
| Amorphophallus paeoniifolius |
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Amorphophallus campanulatus (Roxb.) Blume ex Decne |
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Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, the elephant foot yam or whitespot giant arum[3][4] or stink lily, is a tropical tuber crop grown primarily in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the tropical Pacific islands. Because of its production potential and popularity as a vegetable in various cuisines, it can be raised as a cash crop.
Description
The plant gives off a putrid smell. The pistillate (female) and staminate (male) flowers are on the same plant and are crowded in cylindrical masses. The berries are red when ripe and are not quite round, being subglobose or ovoid.[2]
Human relevance
As food
Elephant foot yam is of Southeast Asian origin. It grows in its wild form in India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries.
In India this species as a crop is grown mostly in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa. In Hindi belt of India it is popularly known as "oal" (ol (ওল) in Bengali, suran or jimikand in Hindi, senai kizhangu in Tamil, suvarna gedde in Kannada, chena (ചേന) in Malayalam, oluo in Oriya, kanda gadda in Telugu and kaene in Tulu).
In Bihar it is used in oal curry, oal bharta or chokha, pickles and chutney.[5] Oal chutney is also called "barabar chutney" as it has mango, ginger and oal in equal quantities, hence the name barabar (meaning "in equal amount").
In West Bengal, these yams are eaten fried or in yam curry. The plant body of elephant foot yam is also eaten in West Bengal as a green vegetable called Bengali: ওল শাক "ol shaak".
In Tonga, where it is known as teve, it is viewed as the most inferior of all yam species, and is only eaten if nothing else is available.
As medicine
The elephant-foot yam is widely used in Indian medicine and is recommended as a remedy in all three of the major Indian medicinal systems: Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani.[6] The corm is prescribed for bronchitis, asthma, abdominal pain, emesis, dysentery, enlargement of spleen, piles, elephantiasis, diseases due to vitiated blood, and rheumatic swellings. Pharmacological studies have shown a variety of effects,[7] specifically antiprotease activity, analgesic activity, and cytotoxic activity.[8] In addition it has been found to be a potentiator for further reducing bacteria activity when used with antibiotics.[9]
Along with other therapeutic applications, the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India indicates the use of corm[10] in prostatic hyperplasia. The corm contains an active diastatic enzyme amylase, betulinic acid, tricontane, lupeol, stigmasterol, betasitosterol and its palmitate and glucose, galactose, rhamnose and xylose.
Notes and references
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- ↑ The corm is irritant due to the presence of needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Boiling the corms dissolves the crystals and makes the corms edible. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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