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Botany
The Lotus is revered
as India's most sacred plant. Like the rose in the west, it is a symbol
of love and compassion. As a medicinal herb, it has been used in the
Orient for over 1,500 years.
Botany
A perennial
water herb with creeping rootstocks. Leaf stalk is prickly, 30
cm to a few meters long; the blade 40 to 90 cm in diameters is
whitish at the base and rounded like an inverted umbrella. Young
leaves float on the surface; the mature ones projecting above
the water. The long-stalked flowers overtop the leaves, white,
pink or red, 10-20 cm wide, the petals and sepals, 15 or more,
are erect and spreading. Egg-shaped nut-like fruits are embedded
in the cavites of the spongy top-shaped receptacle. The ripe
carpel (fruit and seed in one) is about 13 mm long, with a black,
bony and smooth pericarp.
Distribution
Abundant in
marshes and shallow lakes.
Propagated by seeds or cuttings of stems with at least three
leaves.
Cultivated as pond ornamentals.
Parts
utilized
Whole plant.
Chemical constituents
and characteristics
Nelumbine is present
in dried seeds, cotyledons and young leaves.
• Seed contains flavonoids and alkaloids.
All parts of the plant are used: – astringent, cardiotonic, febrifuge,
hypotensive, resolvent, stomachic, styptics, tonic and vasodilator.
The rhizomes contain asparagin.
Seeds are demulcent and nutritive.
Filaments and flowers are cooling, sedative, astringent, bitter, refrigerant
and expectorant.
Roots are demulcent; used as emmenagogue.
Leaves are antifebrile and antihemorrhagic.
Roots are considered by some as aphrodisiac.
Uses
FOLKLORIC
• Roots, rhizomes,
and flowers are used as astringent.
• The leaves and seeds are used in poultices.
• Flowers, filaments and juice of flower-stalks are used in diarrhea,
cholera, liver complaints, and fevers.
• A syrup made from the flowers used in coughs, beeding piles,
menorrhagia and dysentery.
• Stamens are used for bleeding piles and parturition.
• Nodes of the rhizome used to stop bleeding.
• Astringent petals used for syphilis.
• Seeds used in leprosy and skin diseases; for spermatorrhea and
erotic dreams.
• Roots and young leaves used for piles.
• The milky juice of leaves and flower stalks used in diarrhea.
• Leaves used as deterrent for skin maladies.
• Pounded leaves applied to the body for high fevers, mucous membranes
and skin irritation, and over the forehead for headaches.
• Rhizome root used as rejuvenating tonic.
• Receptacle/.flower stalk used in Chinese medicine to stop internal
bleeding caused by gastric ulcers; menorrhagia or parturient hemorrhage.
• Decoction of flowers used for premature ejaculation.
• Decoction of floral receptacle used for abdominal cramps, bloody
discharges.
• Flower stalk used for bleeding gastric ulcers, excessive menses,
post-partum hemorrhages.
• Paste of root starch used for ringworm and other skin ailments.
• There is folkloric use in the treatment of cancer.
• In Chhattisgarh, India,
the oil prepared from the roots is applied to the genitals to increase
retention time.
• In Japan, the
leaf of NN has been used for home remedy of the summer heat syndrome.
• In China, leaf
used to treat obesity.
Nutrition
• Lotus is a
food plant. The unripe seeds are eaten boiled, raw, or roasted; the
ripe seeds, boiled or roasted. The rhizomes, sliced, are eaten raw or
cooked. The petioles, without the rough outer layer, and the leaves
are boiled and eaten. The pollen and stamens are used to perfume tea.
• Roasted seed used as coffee substitute.
Studies
• Antioxidant:
Study of Nelumbo nucifera seeds yielded alkaloids, saponins, phenolics
and carbohydrates with significant antioxidant activity.
• Memory / Learning:
Study in Wistar rats showed N. nucifera rhizome extract may improve
learning and memory with enhancing neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus
of the hippocampus.
• Diabetes / Aldose Reductase Inhibition:
Aldose reductase is the principal enzyme in the polyol pathway critical
in the pathogenesis of diabetes. A methanol extract study showed an
aldose reductase inhibitory activity.
• Antipyretic: Ethanol
extract study of NN showed dose-dependent antipyretic effect comparable
to that of paracetamol, a standard antipyretic agent.
• Diuretic: A methanol
extract study on the rhizomes of NN exhibited dose-dependent diuresis,
with significant increase in natriuretic and chloruretic activity.
• Hypoglycemic / Hypolipidemic:
A methanol extract study evaluated the flavonoids from NN and showed
significant reduction of fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol and
triglyceride levels with an increase in HDL cholesterol suggesting future
studies on its use for diabetes mellitus.
• Antiobesity: Nelumbo
nucifera leaf extract study in mice was shown to impair digestion, inhibit
absorptionn of lipids and carbohydrate4s, accelerate lipid metabolism
and upregulate energy expenditure–all beneficial for the suppression
of obesity.
• Antiinflammatory:
Supplementation with Lotus Plumule significantly inhibited the production
of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-a and increased anti-inflammatory cytokine
IL-10.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
Cultivated. |
