Dioscorea is the largest genus in the Dioscoreaceae family, and includes a number of economically important species including the air yam, D. bulbifera L. This study aimed to develop new single sequence repeat primers and characterize the genetic diversity of local varieties that originated in several municipalities of Brazil. We developed an enriched genomic library for D. bulbifera resulting ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore the estrogenic effects of the extracts from Chinese yam and its effective compounds. METHODS The activity of the yam was investigated by the uterine weight gain of mice and a proliferation assay of breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 cell); the estrogenic activity was comprehensively evaluated by a serum pharmacology experiment. The levels of estrad...

In this paper, we present the capability of our ontology matching tool YAM++. We show that YAM++ is able to discover mappings between entities of given two ontologies by using machine learning approach. Besides, we also demonstrate that if the training data are not available, YAM++ can discover mappings by using information retrieval techniques. Finally, we show that YAM++ is able to deal with ...

BACKGROUND Although termites are considered as agricultural pests, they play an important role in maintaining the ecosystem. Therefore, it matters to investigate the farmers' perception of the impacts of the termites on the agriculture and their indigenous utilization. METHODS A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview 94 farmers through 10 villages of Atacora department, in the no...

Yam (Dioscorea opposita) is commonly consumed in East Asia, but allergic reaction to this plant food is rare. To date, there is no report of anaphylactic reaction after ingestion of cooked yam. We described 3 cases with anaphylaxis after eating boiled yam and 1 present with oral allergy syndrome as well. Basophil activation test in patients showed positive reactivity to boiled yam extract. In i...

It was envisaged that the inclusion of treated distiller's spent grain (DSG) to yam flour might increase its nutritional value, with the aim of reducing nutritional diseases in communities consuming yam as a staple. Hence, yam flour was fortified with DSG at 5-35%. The effects of this fortification on the nutritional, chemical, and functional properties of yam flour were investigated. The resul...

Yam (Dioscorea) has long been used as foods and folk medicine with the approved positive effects for health promotion. Although consumption of yam products is increasing for health promotion, reports for the metal contamination in commercial yam powder products to protect the consumers are lacking. In this study, we aimed to assess whether the commercial yam powder products were heavy metal con...