Long Way Education

By Eman Abdallah Kamel

Contact the author: emanabdallahkamel@gmail.com

Eman is a writer and an engineer. She is interested in writing about plants and their facts.

This article discusses the history, description, nutritional benefits, and therapeutic potential of all parts of the lotus plant.

What is Nelumbo nucifera?

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. has common names such as “lotus” or “sacred lotus,” “Indian lotus,” and “Chinese water lily.” Nelumbo nucifera synonyms are Nelumbium nelumbo, N. speciosa, N. speciosum, and Nymphaea nelumbo.

Lotus plants are aquatic perennial plants in the Nelumbonaceae family. It has only two species: Nucifera and Lutea. Lotus plants are usually found in ponds, lakes, and swamps. The lotus plant has great economic importance because it has many medicinal uses and is an ornamental flower. All lotus parts, including seeds, leaves, flowers, and rhizomes, are useful and have been used as traditional medicine for thousands of years. There are many studies on these chemical compounds and their potential use in the treatment of many diseases, particularly cancer.

Nelumbo nucifera is cultivated extensively in Southeast Asia. In China, the lotus plant is cultivated on more than 100,000 hectares and is widely found in India. It is also grown widely in New Guinea, Iran, and the north and east of Australia. N. lutea, the American lotus, occurs in eastern and southern North America.

History

The lotus was not used only for therapeutic purposes; it was also a symbol of beauty. Since the third millennium BC, the lotus has been used as a decorative element. The ancient Egyptian artist used the lotus flower as a decorative element on the walls, columns, and all forms of ancient Egyptian architecture. Also, the ancient Egyptians made mirrors and jewelry in the form of the lotus plant.

Around the first millennium BC, the lotus flower appeared in Assyrian decoration and was carried to Syria and Greece in the seventh century BC. Then the lotus was planted extensively throughout Persia, India, and China. Lotus was a large part of Chinese culture. Many have expressed the beauty of the lotus through poems and paintings.

June in West Lake is different from other seasons of the year; the lotus

leaves are extremely exuberant, and the lotus flowers are redder

against the morning sun.

— A famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Wanli.

The Lotus plant has been registered in the most famous medical book in China for more than 400 years. Lotus was transferred from China to Japan and has been cultivated for more than 1000 years.

The lotus plant has also been carved on stone, wood, and textiles in India. The Lotus plant was brought into horticulture in Western Europe around 1787 as a stovehouse water lily under the auspices of the English scientist Joseph Banks. Nowadays, the lotus plant can almost be seen in modern botanical gardens.

Description

The lotus plant consists of

1. Fruit
2. Leaf
3. Flower
4. Root

1. Fruit

The fruit is a group of nutlets. The shape of mature nutlets is oval or circular, up to 1.0 m long and 1.5 cm wide, with a solid, smooth, grayish-black, or brown pericarp. Seeds fill in the mature carpel. The longevity of Nelumbo nucifera seeds exceeds that of any known species of flowering plants. Robert Brown, the first keeper of botany in the British Museum, experimented with the fruits of Nielambo at different times between 1843 and 1845 and showed that they kept the germination force after 150 years of confinement in a box with a glass lid.

2. Leaf

The leaves are large, round, and non-wettable, with a diameter of 20–90 cm. There are two types of leaves: floating and aerial. The floating leaves are flat, while the aerial leaves are cup-shaped. The leaves of the aerial are usually between 24 and 33 cm. The floating leaves range between 23 and 30 cm. Fractures are fibrous. Aerial leaves have small brown dots on their petioles, which are upright, soft, green, or greenish-brown in color.

The above photo is electron microscopy (SEM) showing microstructures on the leaf surface of a lotus plant. These structures on the top of the leaf, along with a waxy layer, help repel water droplets. This helps to keep leaves clean and prevent fungi and other organisms from settling on them.

3. Flower

Flowers are solitary, large, and 10–25 cm in diameter. It also has peduncles arising from the nodes of the rhizomes sheathing at the base, 1-2 cm long, green or blackish green, hard, soft, or rough due to the presence of numerous small scattered prickles, petals, sepals, and stamens that are spirally arranged, passing gradually one into another. The flowers are white, pink, or pinkish-white in color.

4. Root

The rhizomes are 60–140 cm long and 0.5–2.5 cm in diameter, with longitudinal striations, brown patches, nodes, and internodes. The colors of the rhizomes are yellowish-white to yellowish-brown.

Nutrition Facts of Lotus Plant

1. Seeds

Lotus seeds are used as a health food in Asia and in traditional medicine to treat many diseases, such as leprosy, tissue inflammation, cancer, poor digestion, leucorrhea, dermatopathy, and halitosis, in addition to diarrhea, insomnia, antidotes, diuretics, heart complaints, insomnia, and high fever. Also, the seed powder is mixed with honey to treat a cough.

Shelled and dried seeds are usually sold. White and brown seeds are the two types of dried lotus seeds. White lotus seeds are deshelled and de-membraned. The bitter-tasting germ of the seed is removed at harvest time using a hollow needle, although some may remain in the seeds due to production supervision. The brown color of brown lotus seeds results from the membrane joining the seeds. These seeds are usually broken down in half to remove the germ, as the seeds are solid enough to make removing the germ by the needle difficult.

Nutritive Value of Lotus Seeds:

Ash 4.50%, Moisture Content 10.50%, Crude Fat 1.93%, Protein 10.60%, Carbohydrate 72.17%, Crude Fiber 2.70%, and Energy 348.45 cal/100 gm.

Did You Know?

According to a study, lotus seeds are important sources of protein and carbohydrates. Compared to many traditional legumes or grains, lotus farina has better functional properties, such as swelling power, insolubility, and emulsion properties, indicating they can be used in food systems, especially bakery products, meat products, and nutrient supplements.

Percent Concentration of Various Elements of Nelumbo nucifera Seeds:

Chromium 0.0042%, Sodium 1.00%, Potassium 28.5%, Calcium 22.10%, Magnesium 9.20%, Copper 0.0463%, Zinc 0.0840%, Manganese 0.356%, and Iron 0.1990%.

Chemical Evaluation of Lotus Seeds:

Moisture is 7.26%, and oil is 3.62%.

Physicochemical Values:

The saponification value is 175.8%, the iodine value is 90%, the free fatty acid (as oleic acid) is 1.86%, the unsaponifiable matter is 0.52%, the acid value is 3.70%, and the ester value is 172.1%.

Alkaloids:

The primary secondary metabolites present in the seeds are alkaloids such as Dauricine, Armepavine, Pronuciferine, Liensinine, Isoliensinine, Nuciferine, Roemerine, Neferine, and Lotusine.

What are alkaloids?

Alkaloids are a class of organic chemicals containing nitrogen, usually derived from plants, that are used therapeutically as hypnotics, sedatives, and psychotropics.

Several studies have shown that Dauricine plays a variety of biological roles in the human body, the most important of which is to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

A study has shown that Dauricine has anti-tumor effects in colon cancer and suppresses colon cancer cells’ growth. Another study has shown that Dauricine inhibits human breast cancer. In many urinary cancers, including bladder and prostate cancers, dauricine has been shown to have anti-tumor effects.

Studies have shown that liensinine (C₃₇H₄₂N₂O₆) and nuciferine (C₁₉H₂₁NO₂) can prevent bone destruction caused by breast cancer. Liensinine showed significant invasion inhibition of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells compared with nuciferine. Also, experiments demonstrated the ability of solienissinine and neferine to treat breast cancer.

2. Flower

Flowers have traditionally been used to treat abdominal cramps, cholera, fever, hepatopathy, diarrhea, and bloody discharges. In addition to treating excessive menstruation, postpartum hemorrhage, and gastric ulcer bleeding, the stalk is used to treat excessive bleeding.

Flowers are rich in kaempferol, a type of flavonoid. Many studies suggest that the consumption of kaempferol may reduce the risk of various types of cancer, and it is currently being studied as a potential cancer treatment.

A study has shown that kaempferol suppresses breast cancer cell growth caused by estrogen and triclosan in cellular and xenograft breast cancer models. The Multiethnic Cohort Study provided evidence for the preventive effect of kaempferol on pancreatic cancer.

Kaempferol is a good candidate for the chemoprevention of ovarian cancers. A study showed that kaempferol stimulates apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells by regulating pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic protein expressions in the intrinsic apoptosis pathways.

In vitro and in vivo studies have evidenced that kaempferol inhibits gastric cancer tumor growth. Also, the researchers found through experiments in mice that kaempferol significantly improved high blood sugar and reduced the incidence of diabetes from 100% to 77.8%.

3. Leaves

Traditionally, the leaves are used to clear heat, cool the blood, remove heatstroke, stop bleeding, and treat epistaxis, hemoptysis, hyperlipidemia, hematemesis, metrorrhagia, and obesity.

Research has shown that lotus leaves are rich in alkaloids and flavonoids such as quercetin (C₁₅ H₁₀ O₇), leucoanthocyanidin (C₁₅ H₁₄ O₃), rutin (C₂₇ H₃₀ O₁₆), (+)-catechin (C₁₅ H₁₄ O₆), hyperoside (C₂₁ H₂₀ O₁₂), isoquercetin (C₂₁ H₂₀ O₁₂), and astragalin (C₂₁ H₂₀ O₁₁).

According to cancer.gov (National Cancer Institute), isoquercetin is being investigated for its potential to prevent blood clots in cancer patients. Isoquercetin reduces fatigue in kidney cancer patients taking sunitinib, according to clinicalquiries.gov. Quercetin has been studied both in basic research and in small clinical trials. The benefits of quercetin supplements have been enhanced to treat cancer and other diseases. The benefits of quercetin (in dietary supplements or foods) for cancer are not proven. 

fda.gov (US Food and Drug Administration) has issued warning messages to confirm that quercetin is neither specific nor an antioxidant and is not regulated as a drug to treat any human disease. Rutin (rutoside or rutinoside) is under preliminary clinical research for its potential biological effects, such as reducing post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) and deep venous insufficiency (DVT). According to the Cochrane Library, there is no evidence for its safe and effective use.

4. Edible Rhizome (Root)

Traditionally, the rhizome nodes are used to treat nasal bleeding, hemoptysis, uterus bleeding, cancer, chronic liver cirrhosis, tissue inflammation, blood stasis, dysentery, diarrhea, and improve appetite.

Nutritive Value of Lotus Rhizome:

The fresh rhizome contains 83.80% water, 31.2% starch, 0.11% fat, 1.56% sugar, 2.70% protein, 0.41% sucrose, 0.06% calcium, 0.80% fiber, and 1.10% ash.

The Vitamins:

Riboflavin is 0.6 mg per 100 g, niacin is 2.10 mg per 100 g, ascorbic acid is 1.5 mg/100 g, vitamin C is 44 mg/100 g, and thiamine is 0.22 mg/100 g.

The Elements:

Potassium 0.756%, magnesium 0.398%, calcium 1.15%, copper 0.0015%, zinc 0.0032%, sodium 0.10%, barium 0.00064%, and iron 0.053%.

Lotus rhizome is rich in vitamin C, which reduces the duration and severity of common cold symptoms by promoting immune responses and acting as an anti-histamine.

Histamine is the mediator of common symptoms of colds and allergies, and this antihistamine property of vitamin C can work to reduce the severity of the cold.

According to in vitro studies, vitamin C destroys histamine by breaking the structure of the imidazole ring of the molecule. According to in vivo studies, plasma histamine concentrations are reduced by 40% in healthy adults after 2 weeks of vitamin C supplementation. A high intake of vitamin C may reduce the risk of many cancers, such as lung, breast, and colon cancers, but no evidence suggests that vitamin C treats or prevents them.

Did You Know?

According to researchers, cardiovascular disease is caused primarily by oxidative damage.

However, scientists are not sure whether vitamin C itself, either from food or supplements, helps prevent cardiovascular disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease in industrialized countries. According to a study, lotus roots suppress lipogenic enzyme activity and Messenger RNA (mRNA) expression. Furthermore, the Lotus diet markedly suppressed the hepatic expression of inflammatory genes such as Tumor necrosis factor-alpha and CCL2 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1).

Sources

• ifrj.upm.edu.my.pdf… Characteristic and functional properties of Thai lotus seed (Nelumbo nucifera) flours.
• pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov… Current Advances in the Metabolomics Study on Lotus Seeds… Front Plant Sci. 2016 Jun 20;7:891. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00891. eCollection Review
• researchgate.net… Liensinine and Nuciferine, Bioactive Components of Nelumbo nucifera Inhibit the Growth of Breast Cancer Cells and Breast Cancer Associated Bone Loss.
• https://www.phe-culturecollections.org.uk/media/133182/mda-mb-231-cell-line-profile.pdf. MDA-MB-231 breast cancer.
• semanticscholar.org/paper/Isoliensinine induces apoptosis in triple-negative Zhang Wang… Isoliensinine induces apoptosis in triple-negative human breast cancer cells through ROS generation and p38 MAPK/JNK activation.
• oxfordreference.com
• ars.usda.gov/human nutrition research center methods and application of food composition laboratory.
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov… Treatment with kaempferol suppresses breast cancer cell growth caused by estrogen and triclosan in cellular and xenograft breast cancer models.
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov… Flavonols and pancreatic cancer risk: the multiethnic cohort study.
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov… Kaempferol induces apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells by activating p53 in the intrinsic pathway.
• https://ods.od.nih.gov/pdf/factsheets/VitaminC-Consumer.pdf
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov… Effects of lotus root (the edible rhizome of Nelumbo nucifera) on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in obese diabetic db/db mice.

©Eman Abdallah Kamel, 2023

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