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How was water lettuce used medicinally?

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Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes Linnaeus) is the only free-floating aroid, family Araceae. Chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA studies and fossil evidence indicate that water lettuce evolved near the Tethys Sea between 60 and 45 million years ago. Apparently, it is the one and only species in its genus and subfamily, the Pistioideae. But it is not an evolutionary dead end; water lettuce is wildly successful. It is a pantropical pest plant.

Plant of the Week 09/04/2006

Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)
Plant of the Week 09/04/2006

Water lettuce has not always been considered a pest. From 1876 to 1878, a famine struck the western and southern parts of India. At least five million people starved during those years. With no other foods left, young leaves of water lettuce became the famine food. Literally a food of last resort, the leaves contain irritating calcium oxalate crystals, microscopic needles that sting the lips and mouth and more likely than not, upset the stomach.

But long before the famine, Ayurvedic medicine found uses for water lettuce. The leaves were applied to boils, wounds, syphilitic lesions and skin infections like ringworm and other fungi. Alternately, an oil extract of the leaves was given to rid the intestines of worms, treat tuberculosis, dysentery and asthma. The oil was also applied to various skin diseases.

Not surprisingly, the use of water lettuce by these traditional doctors probably worked well, at least with skin infections caused by various dermatophytes, fungi that infect the skin, hair, and nails.

V.G. Premkumar and D. Shyamsundar made a methanol extract from dried powdered water lettuce leaves. The extract was tested against cultures of two species of Trichophyton, 2 of Microsporum, and 1 species of Epidermophyton. The extract inhibited the growth of the fungi; Microsporum was the most susceptible, Trichophyton and Epidermophyton required twice the concentration of the extract.

The extract requires extensive testing. Since Ayurvedic medicine men also treated other skin infections with water lettuce, is the extract antibacterial as well? The active chemical is yet unknown; Premkumar and Shyamsundar point out that it could be any of the alkanes, flavonoids, or sterols present in water lettuce. Once the chemical is discovered, its safety for human use will need to be determined.

http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/pistpic.html

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; "Famine Foods", Robert L. Freedman, Center for New Crops and Plant Products, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University; and "Antidermatophytic activity of Pistia stratiotes", V.G. Premkumar and D. Shymsundar, Research Letter, Indian Journal of Pharmacology, Vol. 37, Issue 2, Mar-Apr 2005, pp 127-128)

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