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Edible tuber
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Boil, bake, mash or roast, yam tastes yummy anyway
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FREQUENTLY CONFUSED with sweet potatoes and cassava, yams (Hindi - Suar alu; Malayalam - Kattuchena; Kannada - Heggenasu; Tamil - Kodikizhangu and Telugu - Chedu paddu dumpa) belong to the genus Dioscorea, and they are a popular food throughout the tropics.
The history of yam cultivation goes back thousands of years. Of the edible species in the genus Dioscorea, the Greater Yam, the Yellow Yam and the White Yam are the most common. The former is native to South-East Asia, while the latter two are native to Africa which produces nearly 90 per cent of the world's yams.
The Malaysian people who once inhabited Madagascar helped carry the yam to all corners of Africa. In the 15th Century A.D., the flourishing slave trade helped the tuber reach the Caribbean and the Americas.
Yam is a popular food in South America, the Caribbean islands, Africa and the Pacific Islands. Many African planting and harvesting festivals revolve around the yam, which points to its importance in the African society over the ages. Gifting yams is a common practice in marriages, and birth and death ceremonies.
Yam flesh ranges in colour from purple to pink, and from white to golden yellow. The people of Hawaii and the Polynesian islands eat the starchy tubers after cooking them in an underground oven. West Africans eat yams boiled, baked, roasted, mashed or fried. Dough made from pounding boiled and peeled yams is called "fufu", and is served with vegetable stews. Yam flour, added to water, produces "kokonte", and adds carbohydrate to meat and fish dishes.
Hundred grams of yam — cooked, boiled, drained, or baked — without salt contains 116 calories. Most of the calories reside in the starch. The tubers are a good source of Vitamin B-6 and potassium.
Yam starch takes longer to break down compared with other starchy tubers like potato and sweet potato, which makes it a safer source of carbohydrate for diabetics. It is also a good source of manganese, a vital micronutrient. Yam flesh is poisonous raw, but cooking destroys the acrid principles in it. The diosgenin in yam makes it a herbal remedy for arthritis, asthma and eczema. Chinese medicine uses the tuber to treat carbuncles, diarrhoea, menstrual disorders and certain inflammatory conditions.
RAJIV M.
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