A herbaceous liana up to 4 m long, with a thick, horizontal, and branched rhizome. The leaves are petiolate, heart-shaped-ovate, pointed, with a slightly wavy edge, and 9–13 arcuate veins. The flowers are unisexual, small, greenish, with a simple, deeply divided perianth. The staminate flowers have 6 stamens and a reduced ovary, with a short style and 3 stigmas. Staminate flowers grow in clusters of 1–3 in loose axillary racemes, while pistillate flowers are solitary in racemes. The fruit is a capsule with three membranous wings. The seeds are fully surrounded by a wing. It blooms from May to July and bears fruit from July to September. Found only in oak forests and among shrubs in the mountains of the Western Caucasus at an altitude of 400–1000 m.
Rhizomes with roots are collected in spring, no later than the flowering phase, dried, and cut into pieces. The total saponin content is about 5–8%. The steroid saponin dioscin, which breaks down into glucose, rhamnose, and diosgenin, has been studied in greater detail.
The preparation diosponin, consisting of a sum of water-soluble saponins from the rhizomes of Dioscorea, is taken in tablets of 0.05–0.1 g twice a day after meals for 10 days to treat atherosclerosis.
Dioscorea nipponica, or multi-racemose, — Dioscorea nipponica Makino (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.). Grows in the Primorsky Krai, in forests and among shrubs. It differs from Dioscorea caucasica in its leaves, which are broadly heart-shaped with 3–5–7 lobes. The seeds have wings only at the top. The rhizomes also contain saponins (4.5%), including dioscin.