Resumen

GONZALEZ VEGA, María Esther. The Yam (Dioscorea spp.). Characteristics, uses and medicinal value. Important aspects of this crop development. cultrop [online]. 2012, vol.33, n.4, pp. 05-15. ISSN 0258-5936.

In the last years the crop of the yam comes presenting a considerable increment, occupying a new dimension in the alimentary chain and being present in the development of the family agriculture. In this paper was made a revision with the objective of giving to know the potentialities of the yam, as well as to gather information that can be interesting to specialists that begin in the yam, and to farmers motivated in the same one. Inside the aspects related with the cultivation of the yam (Dioscorea spp.), considering its characteristics, aspects ethnobotanical, geographical distribution, uses more frequent, propagation; as well as their socioeconomic importance for developing countries, so much from the alimentary point of view, as medicinal and industrial.

Palabras clave : yam; Dioscorea spp; nutritional value; starch; medicinal properties.

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