ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Water-chestnuts. Water-chestnuts are used as a nut, fresh or roasted, made into a flour, served as a cooked vegetable, or made into a confection, candied much as true chestnuts in Europe. Nuts are often made into rosaries. Reported to be alterative, astringent, refrigerant, and tonic, various species of Trapa are used in folk remedies for anasarca, bronchitis, cancer, cough, diarrhea, dropsy, fever, flux, rinderpest, and sunstroke. Reported from the China-Japan Center of Diversity, water-chestnut, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate weeds and waterlogging. Native to central and eastern Europe and Asia, water-chestnuts have been used for food since Neolithic times. Water-chestnut is propagated by seed, which must be kept in water before they are sown. At first nuts are harvested once every 2 weeks, then every week, and then nearly every day from November onward.
