ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Sacred Lotus. Rhizomes and seeds of the sacred lotus are frequently used for food, especially in the Orient. The small scale-like leaves on the rootstock, up to 30 cm long, are used as food in some countries. Plants are grown by Chinese and Japanese for the edible tubers, which are used much like sweet potatoes, roasted, steamed, or pickled. According to J. L. Hartwell, the lotus is used in folk remedies for corns, calluses, and tumors, and/or indurations of the abdomen, cervix, ear, limbs, kidney, liver, and spleen. In China, the leaf juice is used for diarrhea or decocted with licorice for sunstroke or vertigo. Fruit decocted for agitation, fever, heart, and hematemesis. Seed used for diarrhea, enteritis, insomnia, metrorrhagia, neurasthenia, nightmare, spermatorrhea, splenitis, leucorrhea, and seminal emissions.
