Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.

Synonym:

Nelumbium 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. Pundarika (whitish), kokanada (red), Indivara (Bluish).

Unani:

Used as a substitute for Nilofar.

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 Indiarecommends dried rhizomes, with roots attached at nodes, in syncope and vertigo.

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