Dioscorea dregeana (Kunth) T. Durand & Schinz is a twining herb commonly known as wild yam which naturally occurs in Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa. There are several medicinal plants and natural products in South Africa that play an important role in traditional materia medica. However, there is scarce information in the public domain on some of these species, including D. dregeana. Therefore, this investigation documented the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological properties of D. dregeana. D. dregeana is mainly used to facilitate child birth, as antenatal, sedative and ethnoveterinary medicine, and traditional medicine for respiratory infections, convulsions, epilepsy, hysteria, insanity, insomnia, soporifics, nervous spasms, cramps, psychosis, sores, wounds and cuts. A variety of phytochemical compounds such as sitosterol, stigmasterol, dodecanosyl 3-[4′-hydroxy, 3′-methoxyphenyl] propenoate, 3, 4′,5-trihydroxybibenzyl, crinamine and dioscorine were identified from the tubers of D. dregeana. The ethyl acetate, methanol, aqueous and dichloromethane extracts of D. dregeana tubers exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities. More research is needed to assert the medicinal and ethnopharmacological uses of D. dregeana, and also to determine the phytochemical active ingredients, toxicological properties and pharmacological effects of the species.
Wild yam, Primary healthcare, Medicinal plants, Pharmacology, Tropical Africa
