Abdominal distention treated with TCM lotus leaf

What is lotus leaf(Folium Nelumbinis, He Ye)?
Medicinally it means the dried leaves of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., a plant in the family nymphaeaceae. The harvesting time is usually on summer and autumn because the quality then is the best. Next, they need to be dried in the sun with humidity below 30 percent, remove the petiole, folded into a semicircular shape or folding fan, and then dried thoroughly.

Its plant is a perennial aquatic herb. Fleshy roots grow breadthways, with inflated nodes, many longitudinal vent holes, and exogenous whisker-like adventitious roots. Leaves grow from nodes and expose on the surface of the water. Stout, cylindrical, and spiny petiole grows in the middle of back of blade. Blade is round, 25 to 90cm in diameter, and with entire or slightly wavy margin. Flowers, 10 to 20cm in diameter, grow solitarily at the top of pedicel. Pedicel, scattered with small spines, is as long as or slightly longer than petiole. After flowering it forms seedpod of the lotus, which is in the shape of inverted cone, 5 to 10cm in diameter, with 20-30 holes, each hole containing a fruit. Nuts are oval or ovate and 1.5 to 2.5cm long. Leathery pericarp is hard and dark brown when it is ripe. Seeds are ovate or elliptic, 1.2 to 1.7cm long, and with red or white testa. Flowering period is from June to August and the fruiting period is from August to October. Ecological habitat is ponds, lakes or paddy fields. Now it grows in the wild or is cultivated.

Main chemical constituents include roemerine, nuciferine, nornuciferine, armepavine, pronuciferine, N-nornuciferine, anonaine, liriodenine, asimilobine, N-norarmepavine, lirinidine, quercetin, leucocyanidin, leucocyanidin, nelunboside, oxalic acid, succinic acid, malic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, gluconic acid, tannins, and so on.

Lotus leaves health benefits
As mentioned previously, lotus leaf is a very good diet herb thanks to its diuretic and laxative effect. This is a common plant that has magical medicinal use in herbal remedies. From the point of view of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), it is bitter in flavor and astringent and neutral in properties. And it covers 5 meridians like heart, liver, spleen, gall, and lung. Vital functions include eliminating summer-heat by cooling, sending up the lucid yang, dissipating blood stasis, and stopping bleeding. Main lotus leaves uses are polydipsia due to summer-heat and damp, headache, dizziness, splenasthenic abdominal distention, diarrhea, vomiting blood, blood in stool, vaginal hemorrhage, and postpartum persistent flow of lochia. Recommended dosage is from 3 to 10 grams (dried lotus leaf), 15 to 30 grams (fresh lotus leaves), or 3 to 6 gram (charred) in decoction, pills, and powder