The glucosinolate phenethyl isothiocyanate, which is released upon chewing the leaf, is a chemopreventive agent against lung cancer. (cited in Expanded Commission E Monographs.)
Watercress is contraindicated in gastric and duodenal ulcers and inflammatory kidney diseases. (Francis Brinker.)
Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.
Synonym Net umbium speciosum Willd.
Family Nymphaeaceae.
Habitat Throughout warmer parts of India, up to 1,800 m.
English East Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus.
Ayurvedic Kamala, Padma,
Nalina, Aravinda, Jalaja, Raajeeva,
Pushkara, Ambuja, Abja, Pankaja.
Pundarilca (whitish), kokanada
(red), Indivara (Bluish).
Unani Used as a substitute for Niofar.
Siddha/Tamil Thaamarai, Ambel.
Action Filament—astringent and haemostatic. Prescribed for bleeding piles and menorrhagia. Flowers—a decoction is given in cholera, fever, strangury, palpitation of heart. Rhizomes—given in piles, chronic dyspepsia and dysentery; applied externally to cutaneous eruptions, scabies and ringworm. Rhizome- arrowroot— given to children in diarrhoea and dysentery. Root—astringent, diuretic, antiemetic, cooling. Used for dysentery, dyspepsia, piles, skin affections and for its anticoagulant properties.
The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India recommends dried rhizomes, with roots attached at nodes, in syncope and vertigo.
Flowers yielded quercetin, luteolin and their glycosides and kaempferol
U.
436 Nepeta cataria Linn.
glycosides. Leaves gave quercetin, isoquercitrin and leucoanthocyanidin.
Isoquinoline alkaloid, nuciferin, is neuroleptic. Active agents in the leaves are the alkaloids, nelumbin and roemerin.
Dosage Dried flower—12—24 g for decoction (API, Vol. II); rhizomes— 5—10 m powder; 10—20 ml juice (API, Vol. III). Seed—3—6 g powder; flower—10—20 ml juice. (CCRAS.)
