There is no information indicating that Chinese yam can treat snakebite.
Chinese yam, known as “Huaishan”, is sweet in taste and flat in nature, and belongs to the spleen, lung and kidney meridians. Its effects include tonifying the spleen and nourishing the stomach, generating body fluid, benefiting the lungs, tonifying the kidneys and astringing the spermatozoa. It is mainly used in treating spleen deficiency with little food, loose stools, excessive leucorrhea, spermatorrhea, hypogastric discharge, and deficiency heat and thirst. According to the current indications, yam does not have a clear role in treating snakebite.
For weak spleen and stomach, loose stools (thin and unformed feces), and tiredness, yam can be used with ginseng, atractylodes, and white lentils, such as ginseng-ling-white-bean-san. To treat lung deficiency and chronic cough or asthma, yam is often used together with Radix Panax Ginseng, Radix et Rhizoma Ophiopogonis, Radix et Rhizoma Nansha Ginseng.
Yam should not be taken by people who are full of dampness (too much dampness leading to fullness and discomfort in the spleen and stomach) or who have solid evils or stagnation, and the adverse effects of taking yam are not yet clear.