Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Nymphæceæ
N. O. NYMPHÆCEÆ.
53. Nymphcæa alba, Linn. h.f.b.i. i. 114.
Vern.:—Brimposh, nilofar; Kamud; (Kashmir). Pandbaren Kamal (Bombay).
Habitat:—Kashmir lake, alt. 5,300 ft. Bombay tanks and wayside still water-courses.
An aquatic creeper. Root-stock creeping under water. Leaves floating on water-surface, cordate, quite entire, 5-10 in. diam., suborbiculate, lobes contiguous. Flowers a foot or 6 in. above water, white on a green peduncle, expanding at sunrise and closing at sunset. Sepals 4 linear or ovate-oblong; nerves reticulate. Petals 10, outer linear-oblong, equalling the sepals. Anthers without appendages. Stigmatic rays about 16, with cylindric appendages. Pollen echinate. Seeds minute, numerous, buried in a mucilaginous pulp, edible. Fruit, a spongy berry, opening under water.
Parts used:—The Root-stock, flowers and fruit.
Uses:—The mucilaginous and somewhat acrid root and stock are administered in some countries for dysentery. According to O'Shaughnessy it is astringent and slightly narcotic. Its flowers are reputed to be anti-aphrodisiac. An infusion of the flower and fruit is given in diarrhoea and as a diaphoretic. (Stewart). 54. N. Lotus, Linn. h.f.b.i. i. 114.
Syn.:—N. rubra, Roxb. N. edulis, DC.
Habitat:—Common throughout the warmer parts of India, abundant in Bombay, Thana district, Ceylon streams, tanks, ponds, up to 1,000 ft.
Sansk.:—Raktotpala (Red lotus), Kokonada (Lotus), Hallaka (Red lotus), Raktasandhika (Red joints), Nilotpala (Blue lotus), Kunalaya (Lotus), Bhadra (Auspicious), Indivara (Good lotus).
Vern:-~Kanval; Chota Kanval (H.); Shaluk; Saluk; nal; Koi (parched seeds); rakta kamal (red variety; Chota sundi (B.); Dhaala-Lain; rangkahi (Orissa); Kuni; puni; lorhi (mot); napo (seeds) (Sind); Alli-phul (Dec.); Kanval; Kanval; nilophal (Guz.); La] a Kamal. Rakta Kamal (Marathi); Alli-tamarai, Ambal (Tam.); Alli-tamara; tella-kaluva; koteka; Erra-kaluva (red var.); Kalha-ramu(Tel.); Nyadale-huvu (Kan.); Ampala (Malay); Otu-Et-Olu (Sinhalese;—.
Parts used:—The flowers, root and seeds.
N.B.:—Trimen observes thus:—The colour of the flowers varies from pale pink or nearly white to a deep rich rose-colour. Their size is also very variable; but these differences are not united with any structural ones of sufficient importance to distinguish separate species.
An aquatic creeping herb. Rootstock short, erect, roundish, tuberous. Leaves on very long, erect, cylindrical, submerged petioles. Blade horizontal, floating, peltate 6-8 in. diam., sagittate-rotundate, very obtuse, with a narrow or wide sinus 3 in. deep at base, coarsely and sharply sinuate-dentate, smooth above, more or less densely and finely velvet-tomentose beneath, with veins very prominent. Flowers solitary, very large, 5-7 in. diam., on very long, usually pubescent, peduncles. Sepals oblong, obtuse, ribbed, glabrous or pilose externally. Petals about 12, oblong or oval-oblong, obtuse, spreading. Stamens about 40, anthers without cippendages, filaments dilated at base Rays of stigma terminating in fleshy, club-shaped, incurved appendages. Fruit H in. diam., globular, fleshy, green, crowned with erect connivent, stiff, persistent sepals. Cells about 15, closely crowded with seeds. Seeds ovoid-globular, ribbed with vertical lines of little tubercles, and very minutely transversely striate; aril white, transparent. Seeds edible.
The flowers are sweet-scented. They sink under water to mature and ripen.
Uses:—The rootstock of this plant, says my old friend, Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji, at page 16 of his Vanaspati-Varnana (Gujrati), is used on fast days by Hindus as a nourishing article of food, after boiling and mixing it with milk and sugar. The powdered rootstock is also given in dyspepsia, diarrhoea and piles. A decoction of flowers is also given in palpitation of heart, it is not stated in what quantity or of what strength.
55. N. stellatta, Willd. h. f. br. i,, i. 114.
Sanskrit:—Nilotpal, Indiwar.
Vern.:—(Sinhalese) Monch; (Porebunder) Tvamal,Kala Kamal, Kumdu; (Guj.) Nilkamal; (Mar.) Poyani, Krishna-Kamal. (Hindi) Nil-padma, Lilophal, Nil-kamal.
Habitat:—Common throughout the warmer parts of India and Ceylon, in shallow streams, tanks and ponds. Open all day, says Trimen. But some of the pale blue and drab-coloured varieties in Ratnagiri and Thana (Konkan) open at sunset and close at sunrise. They are found in tropical and Northern Africa. Trimen notes a violet-coloured variety from Ceylon, also pinkish-purple.
Rootstock ovoid, short, erect; leaves on long, rather slender, submerged petioles; blade floating; about 5-8 in. diam., sagittate-rotund, very obtuse, with a usually narrow sinus, 2-3 in. deep at base, entire or coarsely sinuate, glabrous on both sides. Flowers solitary on long peduncles, 3-6 in. diam., sepals narrowly oblong -lanceolate, acute or subacute. Petals linear-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse. Stamens 40-50, with a tongue-shaped appendage beyond the anthers. Stigmatic rays ' acute, 10-30, curved upwards at the ends, without appendages, in short horns. Fruit globular. Seeds longitudinally striate. Flowers through-out the year.
Uses:—Its uses are those of N. Lotus. Roots and seeds edible, especially in famines. 56. Euryale ferox, Salisb. h.f.b.i, i. 115.
Habitat:—Sweet water lakes and ponds of East Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Oudh and Kashmir.
Sansk. Mukhauna; padma.
Vern.:—Makhana (H & B); Kunta padma (Uriya); Jewar (Pb.); Melluni padman (Tel).
A densely prickly aquatic. Rootstock short. Leaves peltate, corrugate, 1-4 ft. diam., elliptic or orbicular, green above, downy, deep bluish-purple beneath (Curtis PI. 1447), with strong spiny ribs. Spines sharp-curved on the under and upper surfaces. Ribs dichotomously branched over the whole leaf. The leaf, while in bud, is curiously folded up and enclosed in an involucre, which bursts as the leaf expands. Petiole long, wavy, spiny. Flowers 1-2 in. long, bright-red inside, green and shining outside. Sepals 4, erect, inserted on the edge of the torus above the carpels. Petals numerous, violet, 3-5 seriate, shorter than the sepals Stamens many, many-seriate, fascicled in eights; filaments linear, pollen spherical, 3-nucleate. Ovary 8-celled, sunk in the dilated top of the torus. Stigma sessile; discoid, concave. Berry spongy, 2-4 in. diam., crowned with persistent sepals. Seeds 8-20, from a pea to a cherry in size, much eaten roasted. Aril pulpy. Testa thick, black. Albumen mealy; embryo small.
Use:—The seed is considered as possessed of powerful medicinal virtues, such as restraining seminal gleet, invigorating the system, &c. (Roxburgh).
A light and invigorating food, suited for the sick (U. C. Dutt).
57. Nelumbium speciosum, Willd. h. f. b. i., i. 116. Roxb. 450.
Sansk.:—Kamala (A lotus), sweta (white), Ambhoja (born from water), saraja (born from a lake), sarsiruha (growing in a lake), sahasrapatra (Thousand-leaved), srigeha (Abode of beauty), satapatra (Hundred-leaved), Pankeruha (growing in mud), Tamarasai (copper colour), Rajina (Lotus), Pushkaravah (Pushkara-named), Abja (born from water), Ambhoruha (born from water), Padma (A lotus), Pundarika (A lotus), Pankaja (born from mud), Nala (Lotus), Nalina (Lotus), Arvinda (Lotus), Mahotpala (great lotus).
Vern.:—Kanwal (H.) (Kumaon), Padma (B.); Padam (Uriya); Besenda, Pabbin (N.-W. P.); Pamposh; Kanwal Kakri and bhe or phe (root), gatte (Seed) (Pb.); Pabban (plant), bhe root, Paduro (Seeds), Nilofar (drug) (Sind); Kungwelka-gudda (Dec.); Kamala-Kankadi (Bomb.); Tavarigadde; tavaribija (Kan.); Paud-Kanda (Poona); Shivapdutamara-ver, ambal (Tam.); Erra-tamara veru (Tel.); Tamara (Malay.;. Tamarai (Tam.) Ceylon; Nelun (Sinhalese).
Habitat:—Throughout India, extending as far to the N. W. P. as Cashmir. Abundant in Bombay, Thana district, Ceylon, Persia, China, Japan, Malay Islands, Tropical Australia.
An erect, large herb of still waters, extensively creeping. Root-stock stout, creeping. Leaves raised several feet high above water; peltate, 2-3 ft. diam., membranous glaucous, cupped. Flowers magnificent, rose-red or white, sweet-scented, 4-10 in. diam. Peduncles and petioles 3-6 ft. high, full of spiral vessels, with stumpy, scattered prickles. Sepals 4-5, inserted on the top of the scape, caducous. Petals and stamens many, hypogynous, many-seriate, caducous, elliptic, concave, veined. Anthers adnate, with a clubbed appendage, produced beyond the anther-cells. Ovaries many, 1-celled, loose, sunk in a flat top of an obconic, spongy torus (not fleshy torus). The torus or receptacle 3-4 in. high, flat at top, 2-4 in. wide. Style short, exserted; stigma capitate. Ripe carpel, seed-like, in. long, ovoid, glabrous. This is fruit and seed at one and the same time; edible. Pericarp black, bony, smooth. Albumen absent, cotyledons fleshy, thick, enclosing the large green folded plumule. Testa spongy brown.
Hermann gives Nelumbo as the Singhalese name (Trimen).
In Sanskrit, the white variety is called Pundarik; the pink is called Kokonad, and the blue variety is called Indivara. 1 have never come across this third blue variety in the Konkan or the Dekkan, but it has been mentioned by Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji and Dr. Tribhuvandas M. Shah, in their respective works. The flowers of Nelumbium speciosum open at sunrise and close at sunset. Hence, they are called Surya-vikashi or Surya-Kamal; whereas Nymphcea stellata opens at sunset and closes at sunrise, and is hence called Ohandra-vikashi (K. R. K.)
N.B.—It is the 'Lotus' of the Europeans in the East; the Cyamus or 'Sacred Bean' of ancient Egypt, where it does not grow now (Trimen).
Parts used:—The filaments, seeds, leaves, and root.
Uses:—By Sanskrit authors, the filaments are considered astringent and cooling, useful in burning sensation of the body, bleeding piles and menorrhagia. In bleeding piles, the filaments of the lotus are given, with honey and fresh butter, or with sugar.
The large leaves are used as cool bedsheets, in high fever, with much heat and burning of the skin (Dutt's Materia Medica of the Hindus). The seeds are used to check vomiting, and given to children as diuretic and refrigerant. The milky viscid juice of the leaf and flower stalks is used in diarrhoea. The petals are said to be slightly astringent.
The large root stalks are cut into 1 foot pieces, and sold under the name of Bhishi; they afford a cooling, refreshing dish, when cooked in milk or cocoanut juice, with salt or sugar.
A sherbet of this plant is used as refrigerant in small-pox, and is said to stop eruption; used also in all eruptive fevers, The root is used as a paste in ringworm and other cutaneous affections. (Dr. Emerson.)
The flowers are used as an astringent in diarrhoea, also cholera, in fever and diseases of the liver; and are also recommended as a cardiac tonic.
The powdered root is prescribed for piles as a demulcent; also for dysentery and dyspepsia.
The seeds form a cooling medicine for cutaneous diseases and leprosy, and are considered an antidote for poisons.
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