Elephant Foot Yam for Diabetics

This type of Elephant Foot Yam plant has a Javanese name, suweg. Suweg can produce edible stem tubers; this plant is also still a relative of iles-iles in terms of leaf morphology in the vegetative phase.

This Elephant Foot Yam plant can be used as food and can also be used in industry to medicine. In the past, Elephant Foot Yam was used as a substitute for rice and carbohydrates. This plant has no stems, and the flowers smell bad.

Then what are the benefits of one plant, which is also a unique fact of Elephant Foot Yam?

Elephant Foot Yam, which has the Latin name Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, has many benefits. Elephant Foot Yam can produce carbohydrates and high yield rates. The tubers can reach 5 kg; the taste is also neutral, so mixing and matching with various ingredients as raw materials for traditional or modern cakes is easy.

Elephant Foot Yam can also be used as an ingredient in glue, gelatin, noodles, tofu, cosmetics and bread. Flour derived from plants can be a functional food for suppressing increased blood sugar levels and reducing blood serum cholesterol levels. These foods have a low glycemic index and hypocholesterolemic and hypoglycemic functional properties.

As a high amount of dietary fibre, this plant is also useful in providing human defence against various diseases such as colon cancer, diverticular, cardiovascular, obesity, high blood cholesterol and diabetes.

In the Philippines, this plant is often floured to replace flour and is usually used as a raw material for making bread. In Japan, tubers similar to this plant have been widely used for food, such as ingredients in the manufacture of instant noodles.

Food technology researchers from the Bogor Agricultural Institute, Indonesia, also revealed that Elephant Foot Yam has high fibre content but low sugar. Elephant Foot Yam can be a cheap alternative to rice for people with diabetes.

The researchers found that the carbohydrate content in Elephant Foot Yam reached 18% to 21%, with fibre content reaching 15.09%. Uniquely, the protein content of this plant after being made into flour also increased to 11.67%. High fibre content makes this plant have a low sugar content. This researcher from the Bogor Agricultural Institute hopes to continue this research to develop this plant further to become an alternative food for people with diabetes.

Traditional medicine experts at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Prof. Suwijiyo Pramono, confirm the benefits of Elephant Foot Yam for people with diabetes. However, it looks like an ordinary plant; who would have thought that Suweg is also beneficial, especially for people with diabetes.
 
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Source image: Image of Elephant Foot Yam | commons.wikimedia.org