Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. (Syn.: Ipomoea ighantuy Choisy) (RAKTALUKA)

Raktaluka is quoted among the five varieties of aluka in susruta samhita (Su.46/298). It is considered as a variety of Dioscorea species by Thakur Balwant Singhji.  It is now understood that sweet potato is the source for madhvaluka. The sweet potato(Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a “yam” in parts of the southern United States and Canada even though it is not part of the Dioscoreaceae family. Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called “yam” in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture. Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and Velvet.

Botanical Description – Tuberous-rooted perennial, usually grown as an annual; top herbaceous, drying back to ground each year; stems forming a running vine up to 4 m long, usually prostrate and slender, with milky juice, lateral stem-branches arising from the short stem and usually not branched; leaves ovate-cordate, borne on long petioles, palmately veined, angular or lobed, depending on variety, green or purplish; flowers rare, especially in United States, like common morningglory, white or pale violet, axillary, funnel-shaped, borne singly or in cymes on short peduncles; pods round; seeds 1–4 per pod, flattened, hard-coated, angular.