Wild Yam Root C/S Cert. Organic (Dioscorea villosa) 1 lb: K

This is Frontier's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Some Frontier packs are double wall wax-lined paper. Used as an infusion, decoction, extract and tincture. Wild yam is a strong antispasmodic and is anti-inflammatory, thus helpful with the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, cramps, and upset stomach. Mexican Wild Yam, the related Dioscorea mexicana, is the original source of diosgenin, the steroidal saponin used for contraceptive hormone manufacture. Wild yam is helpful with the nausea of pregnant women and dysmenorrhoea. Another compound, dioscoretine, has been shown to lower blood triglycerides and to raise HDL ('good') cholesterol. An extract of wild yam was found to have antioxidant properties. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Much saponin has been found in the roots, and a substance improperly called dioscorein, obtained by precipitating the tincture with water.' 'Medicinal Action and Uses: Antispasmodic. Perhaps the best relief and promptest cure for bilious colic, especially helpful in the nausea of pregnant women. Valuable also in painful cholera morbus with cramps, neuralgic affections, spasmodic hiccough and spasmodic asthma.' Dosage: ½ to 1 drachm of fluid extract. Dioscorein, ¼ to 4 grains. King’s 1898 Dispensatory: 'In former editions I have termed this agent an antispasmodic, and solely for the reason that it cures bilious colic. And I can truly say that nearly all remedies have thus been classified, not from any positive knowledge of their action, but from the results following their administration. A change of classification based upon the known action of remedies is certainly desirable, and I am glad to observe that the attention of physicians has already been attracted in this direction.' 'In the absence of any positive knowledge concerning the action of dioscorea, perhaps it would be better to say that it is a specific in bilious colic, having proved almost invariably successful in doses of ½ pint of the decoction, repeated every half hour, or hour. Specific dioscorea may be given in 5-drop doses every 5 minutes. No other medicine is required, as it gives prompt and permanent relief in the most severe cases (Prof. J. King). In fact it is not only of value in bilious colic, but in all forms of colic and other painful abdominal neuroses, and all forms of gastro-intestinal irritation.' 'If it does not relieve in one hour, the medicine should be discontinued. It has allayed the pain incident to the passage of biliary calculi when given with full doses of gelsemium (Webster). It has also proved valuable in painful cholera morbus attended with cramps, in neuralgic affections, in irritable conditions of the nervous system, especially when attended with pain or spasms, in spasmodic hiccough, obstinate and painful vomiting, gastralgia, and in one case of spasmodic asthma Prof. King effected a cure with it after several other means had failed.' 'It will likewise allay nausea, also s