INTRODUCTION
Siddhars upon their intuition quoted about water or marine products as
Therapeutic agents. Oyster shells,Pearls, Corals, Amber, Ossepiae and Conch shells are even now used
much in ISM drug industry.25% of medicines mentioned by siddhars are from
marine and aquatic sources Aquatic and water bed plants play major role in health
care maintenance.
Nutrition
from Herbal sources
Quality health care concentrated more in usage of
natural resources in nutritional supplements. Synthetic and chemical nutrients
have been replaced by herbal and marine resources. ”Spirulina” emerged as a
competent alternative for vitamin supplements; Oyster shell calcines yielded
more therapeutic calcium than synthetic. When a reference made in the
prescriptions of medicines by siddhars for antenatal care ,it gave a gateway
opening for identification of Nelumbium speciosum as the commonest drug prescribed in all months. This led to a
deeper research in the area of Nutraceutical usage of Nelumbium speciosum.
Nelumbium speciosum
Synonyms
|
Sanskrit - Kamala ,Padma
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Hindi - Kamal
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Tamil
- Ambal
,Thamarai
|
Research scan (previous studies)
|
water: 83.80
|
protein : 2.7
|
fat : 0.11
|
Reducing sugar : 1.56
|
sucrose :0.41
|
starch :9.25
|
fiber :0.80
|
calcium :0.06
|
Vitamins
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Thiamin :0.22
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Riboflavin :0.06
|
Niacin :2.1
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Amino acid :15
|
Dried carpels
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Water :10.0
|
Protein :17.2
|
Fat :2.4
|
Carbohydrate :6.6
|
Fiber :2.6
|
ash :3.8
|
Calcium :138
|
phosphorus :294
|
iron :2.3
|
Ascorbicacid :15
|
Microbial
Studies
Flowers reported to posses bacterioastatic action
against gram positve and gram negative bacteria
ALKALOIDS
Nuciferine,Romerine ,Nor Nuciferine,Nelumbine are
the alkaloids present
Analysis
of Folic acid in Lotus flowers and carpels- Methods
Folic acid the essential nutrient to run a safe antenatal
period has been studied over for its presence in flower and carpels of lotus.Folic
acid deficiency lead to Neural tube defects and people with bifid spine will be
born.Folic acid is also useful in treating anemia and one of the best nutrient.
The sample powder of carpels and flowers are sent to
CFTRI for analysis and results were discussed.One gram of the powder showed the
presence of 0.20 milligram of folicacid (Joaca – 1992 Methodology )
Discussions
With the obtained results it is clear that a lotus
may be a better source in an antenatal care due to the presence of folic acid
(.20 mg/gm ) , iron 2.3 mgs/gm , calcium 136 mg.Being a cheaper, natural ,
efficacious it can be substituted for synthetic vitamins and micro nutrients
after a complete pharmacological assay.
