Dioscorea villosa is a species of a twining tuberous vine that is native to eastern North America. It is common and widespread in a range stretching from Texas and Florida north to Minnesota, Ontario and Massachusetts. In traditional Russian herbal medicine, saponin extracts from the roots of various varieties of wild yam are used as an anticoagulant, antisclerotic, antispasmodic, cholagogue, depurative, diaphoretic, diuretic and a vasodilator.