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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.
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.
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.
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.
FOOD
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.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
Cultivated.
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