Why we are facing malnutrition, infectious diseases and pandemics like COVID-19 ? We have advanced technologies to fight against diseases, disorders, pandemics, new lethal infectious diseases, and many other food & healthcare related problems. Even having such technologies as a panacea, most of the time, in most of the places of the world, we become silent in front of the above global problems. Solution is hidden in our rich culture, indigenous practices, ancient therapeutic systems, and medico-seasonal food of our ethnic communities. We must change ourselves as soon as possible and must readapt our ancient living styles, food behaviors in metallic cities. Still, we have time for the change but the problem is we have forgotten the indigenous practices and food behaviors. If we are not going to wake up now also, some edible & medicinal plants are going to extinct even from the rural and tribal kitchen and therapeutic practices respectively. The adaptation of our ancient behaviors is not only important for our health but it is very necessary for the sustainability of life on earth when we are facing climatic changes and other negative environmental actions. Therefore, the documentation of less known practices, medicinal plants, food plants, indigenous traditional knowledge on different aspects and hidden medico-food is very important to get life on track. Among the less known plant species, tuberous plants, particularly yam species (genus Dioscorea) play a vital role in providing food, medicine and in maintaining the ecological balance of the forest. The book – Yam brings attention on the importance of yam as underutilized tuberous plant and their uses in past, present and future. The chapters included in the book, give a clear idea about their identification, ecology, distribution, food, medicinal, pharmacological, and economic values of 8 underutilized yam species. Among the discussed 8 yam species, D. alata is a commonly available and widely distributed species in India. It has a sound food and medicinal values along with sociocultural significance but not much known in urban areas and in city life. Palatability of this yam is good, useful as a cooling agent and good for diabetics. Rest 7 yam species discussed in different chapters grow in wild and have less palatability. They have some antinutritional factors but are widely used as a medico-food by the local communities of India. They follow traditional practices to remove the toxic components before consumption. The information provided on the yam in 9 chapters of the book could be used as a baseline data for the future advance research in food biology and development of functional food. It also provides an idea for the formulation of therapeutic agents against diverse diseases and disorders. In addition to the food and medicinal values, the last chapter gives us an information about the plant-animal relationship and could be useful in wildlife management in Indian forest.