Dioscorea villosa
Wild yam, colic root. · Plant · Dioscoreaceae
People for whom this remedy is most appropriate are prone to irritability, stress, and nervousness, and want to be left alone.
Key symptoms associated with Dioscorea are neuralgic and colicky pains, primarily affecting the gastrointestinal system. The pains are typically severe, cutting, cramping, and grinding, and radiate out in all directions from a central point that may shift location. They may affect the area of the liver, radiating upward to the right nipple. In women, the pains may occur during menstruation. In men, Dioscorea is typically prescribed to treat renal colic associated with kidney stones, sharp pains radiating down the testicles and legs, and cold, clammy perspiration.
Key symptoms
- Gall stone colic
- Sinking at the pit of the stomach
- Pain along sternum and extending into arms
- with hiccough
- appear in remote localities, as fingers and toes
- Sharp pains from liver, shooting upward to right nipple
- feeble action of heart
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Wild Yam
As a remedy for many kinds of pain, especially colic, and in severe, painful affections of abdominal and pelvic viscera; it ranks with the polychrests of the Materia Medica. Persons of feeble digestive powers; tea-drinkers, with much flatulence. Gall stone colic.
Mind
Calls things by the wrong name.
Head
Dull pain in both temples; better pressure, but worse afterwards. Buzzing in head.
Stomach
Mouth dry and bitter in morning, tongue coated, no thirst. Belching of large quantities of offensive gas. Neuralgia of stomach. Sinking at the pit of the stomach; pyrosis. Pain along sternum and extending into arms. Eructations of sour, bitter wind, with hiccough. Sharp pain in epigastrium, relieved by standing erect.
Abdomen
Pains suddenly shift to different parts; appear in remote localities, as fingers and toes. Rumbling, with emission of much flatus. Griping, cutting in hypogastric region, with intermittent cutting in stomach and small intestines. Colic; better walking about; pains radiate from abdomen, to back, chest, arms; worse, bending forwards and while lying. Sharp pains from liver, shooting upward to right nipple. Pain from gall-bladder to chest, back, and arms. Renal colic, with pain in extremities. Hurried desire for stool.
Heart
Angina pectoris; pain back of sternum into arms; labored breathing; feeble action of heart. Especially with flatulence and pain through chest and tightness across.
Rectum
Hæmorrhoids, with darting pains to liver; look like bunches or grapes or red cherries; protrude after stool, with pain in anus. Diarrhœa (worse in morning), yellowish, followed by exhaustion, as if flatus and feces were hot.
Male
Relaxation and coldness of organs. Pains shoot into testicles from region of kidneys. Strong-smelling sweat on scrotum and pubes. Emissions in sleep, or from sexual atony, with weak knees.
Female
Uterine colic; pains radiate from uterus. Vivid dreams.
Respiratory
Tight feeling all along sternum. Chest does not seem to expand on breathing. Short-winded.
Extremities
Lameness in back; worse, stooping. Aching and stiffness in joints. Sciatica; pains shoot down thigh; worse, right side; better, when perfectly still. Felons in beginning, when pricking is first felt. Nails brittle. Cramps in flexors of fingers and toes.
Modalities
Worse, evening and night, lying down, and doubling up. Better, standing erect, motion in open air; pressure.
Relationship
Antidotes: Chamom; Camph.
Compare: Colocy (differs in modalities); Nux; Cham; Bry.
Dose
Tincture, to third potency.
Dioscorea villosa. Wild yam. N. O. Dioscoreaceæ. Tincture of fresh root, or trituration of resinoid, Dioscorein.
Clinical
Abdomen, distended. Acne. Angina pectoris. Biliousness. Cholerine. Chorea. Colds. Colic. Constipation. Cough. Cramps. Diarrhœa. Dysentery. Dysmenorrhœa. Dyspepsia. Enteralgia. Flatulence. Gall-bladder, affections of. Gastralgia. Hæmorrhoids. Headache. Knee, pain in. Legs, pain in. Liver, disorders of. Lumbago. Mind, affections of. Neuralgia. Paronychia. Parotitis. Pregnancy, pyrosis of. Renal colic. Rheumatism. Sciatica. Side, pain in. Spinal irritation. Spleen, pain in. Smell, disordered. Spermatorrhœa. Tea, effects of. Toothache. Whitlow.
Wild Yam. (Dioscoreaceae.)
Persons of feeble digestive powers, old or young. Flatulence after meals or after eating, especially of tea-drinkers; are often subject to violent colic. Griping pains in abdomen about umbilicus. Violent twisting colic, occurring in regular paroxysms, as if intestines were grasped and twisted by a powerful hand. Colic pains: < from bending forward and while lying; > on standing erect or bending backwards (rev. of Col.). Emissions during sleep; vivid dreams of women all night (Staph.); knees weak; genitals cold; great despondency (Staph.). Felons; early when pains are sharp and agonizing, when pricking is first felt; nails brittle. Disposition to paronychia (Hep.).
Mouth and Throat
Mouth very dry, bitter, and clammy in the morning.
Abdomen
Dull, hard grinding pain in liver in region of gall bladder.
Abdomen
Twisting, sharp cutting pains, in the abdomen, > by straightening out; rumbling and passing of much flatus.
Abdomen
The pains in abdomen suddenly shift, and appear in distant localities, as fingers, toes, etc.
- Colic, pains continuous; worse from bending double, relieved by stretching the body out or standing erect, also by pressure.
Phatak's chapter on Dioscorea villosa is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
