What is Lotus Leaf in Medicine and Food?

According to the Pharmacopoeia
This product is the dried leaves of Lotus nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. Harvested in summer and fall, dried in the sun until 70-80%, remove the petiole, folded into a semi-circular or fan-shaped, dry.
Characteristics] The product is semicircular or fan-shaped, unfolded in a rounded shape, entire or slightly undulate, 20-50 cm in diameter, the upper surface of dark green or yellowish green, rougher; the lower surface of light gray-brown, smoother, with a thick veins of 21-22, from the center of the surrounding shot; the center of the petiole residue with a protruding. The texture is brittle, easy to break. Slightly clear aroma, taste slightly bitter.
Bitter, flat. Attributed to the liver, spleen and stomach meridians.
Functions and Indications] Clearing away summer heat and dampness, elevating Qing Yang, cooling blood and stopping bleeding. It is used in treating summer-heat and thirst, summer-dampness and diarrhea, diarrhea due to deficiency of spleen, epistaxis due to blood-heat, bleeding in stool and leakage. Charcoal of Lotus Leaf is used to stop bleeding by astringency and resolving blood stasis. It is used in bleeding disorder and postpartum hematemesis.
Usage and dosage] 3-10g; Charcoal of Lotus Leaf 3-6g.
Storage] Keep in a dry and ventilated place to prevent moths.
Functional components of lotus leaf
Lotus leaf is a dual-use plant for medicine and food. The content of functional components in the lotus leaf is 30.5%, mainly containing alkaloids, flavonoids, volatile oils and other components.
Flavonoids, such as Hypericin, Isoquercitrin, Zi Yunying Glycoside, Quercetin, NympholideA, N ympholideB and M yzricetin a 3 a (6-P-coumaroy). glucoside and so on 15 kinds of substances, these substances can change the body’s ability to respond to variable reactive elements, viruses and carcinogens. These substances can change the body’s ability to react to variable reactants, viruses and carcinogens, and protect the body’s tissues from oxidative attacks, so they are known as “natural biological reaction regulators”.
The alkaloids are Hordenine, N-norhordenine, O-norhordenine, niobrassine, amygdalin, proto-hordenine and so on, which are the main lipid-lowering active components in the lotus leaf.
Moreover, the content of total flavonoids and hordenine contained in lotus leaves in different growth periods differed to a certain extent, with the growth of lotus leaves, the content of both increased gradually, and reached the highest peak value of 84.21mg/g and 2.132mg/g, respectively, at the maturity stage;
When the lotus leaves entered the stage of demise, the content of the two gradually decreased. In addition, the lotus leaf also contains β-carotene, VC, saponins, steroids, tartaric acid, citric acid, malic acid, oxalic acid and so on. Lotus leaf in the beverage industry
Lotus leaf beverage aroma of the main components for aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, they accounted for the proportion of the total aroma components for 19.69%, 16.24%, 6.25%, and after the lotus seed β-glucosidase treatment of the relative content of the lotus leaf beverage aroma from 3.21% rose to 7.64%.
In addition, it also contains flavonoids, alkaloids, polymer polysaccharides, triterpenoids and other physiologically active ingredients, with lotus leaf as the main raw material of the beverage has a variety of health effects on the human body, such as: weight loss, anti-aging effect, lowering blood glucose, lower cholesterol, immunomodulatory effects.
3.1 Tea drinks Zhang Lei microwave-assisted drying of lotus leaf tea. The process is: the fresh tender lotus leaves after cleaning and de-stemming, cut into strips of 3cm long and 1.5cm wide, using water vapor to kill enzymes, and then kneaded into shape, after microwave drying treatment to continue hot air drying that is the finished product.
The results show that the microwave method of lotus leaf tea one-time dissolution rate of up to 35%, compared with the conventional treatment of a dissolution rate can be increased by more than 20%, and lotus leaf polysaccharide, lotus leaf flavonoids, lotus leaf alkaloids are greatly improved.
Gong Jijun developed lotus leaf tea. Production process is: the dry lotus leaves crushed, hot water extraction, filtered lotus leaf soup, and then with skim milk powder (70 ℃ dissolved homogeneous), honey (sugar filter), stabilizer (hot water dissolved) after blending, and then homogenized, heated, filled and sterilized that is to become a finished product.
The results show that the best formula for milk tea is 4% skim milk powder, 2% honey, 40% lotus leaf soup; the best composite stabilizer for propylene glycol alginate (PGA) 0.09%, low-methoxyl pectin (LMP) 0.12%, carboxymethylcellulose Na (CML-Na) 0.15%.
Zhu Zhen et al. developed a lotus leaf composite tea bags, when the lotus leaf: gynostemma: American ginseng mass ratio of 1.8:0.2:0.2 when the resulting lotus leaf tea bags taste mellow, fresh and natural. The bitter and astringent flavor of lotus leaf was covered by the sweet flavor of American ginseng, and the flavonoid content of the active ingredient was higher than that of pure lotus leaf.
Zhao Linlin et al. developed 1 kind of aged lotus leaf blended tea. The results show that the optimal quality ratio of lotus leaf tea: wolfberry: hawthorn 80 ~ 90: 10 ~ 15: 7 ~ 13 is conducive to the formation of tea aroma quality, 80:20:7 is conducive to the improvement of the overall sensory quality of the tea, 80:15:10 is conducive to the formation of tea taste quality, 😯 ~ 90: 10 ~ 20: 13 is conducive to the formation of tea soup color quality.
3.2 Functional Beverages Wen Boqin prepared lotus leaf functional tea: the flavonoid content in the tea as an indicator, the lotus leaf, gynostemma, American ginseng, cassia seed compounded into two kinds of tea composite tea.
Lotus leaf 1.8g, gynostemma 0.3g, cassia 0.2g, 2.71mg/g of flavonoids in the tea, lotus leaf 1.8g, gynostemma 0.2g, American ginseng 0.2g, 2.59mg/g of flavonoids in the tea, the two teas have a certain ability to scavenge DPPH radicals, inhibit the oxidation of fats and oils, and scavenge hydroxyl radicals.
Fan Tao studied the preparation of lotus leaf functional beverage. The process flow: raw materials, a crushing, a hot blanching, a crushing and pulping, an enzyme digestion, an enzyme inactivation, a pressing, a centrifugation, a debittering, a blending, a sterilization, a bottling and spare. Hawthorn and apple were crushed, pulped, pressed and centrifuged.
The results showed that with 5.0g/L citric acid and 10.0g/L ascorbic acid as the preferred hot blanching solution, the soluble solids were 55.72g/L, alkaloids 31g/L, flavonoids 2.0g/L, and reducing sugar 1.58g/L at the enzymatic temperature of 50℃ and pH 4.0 with the mixed enzyme of cellulase and pectinase.
When the dosage of debitter β-CD was 3.0g/L, the extract had no obvious bitter taste. With this method, we can produce lotus leaf functional beverage with suitable sweet and sour, cool and delicious.
Dietary fiber, the “seventh nutrient”, is also a prebiotic with low-calorie, low glycemic index and the effects of regulating blood lipids, lowering cholesterol and laxative.
Hao Lizhen developed a lotus leaf functional drink with lotus leaf and dietary fiber. Process: lotus leaf powder by ultraviolet sterilization after extraction, get crude extract centrifugal separation, and then add sugar, dietary fiber, citric acid and other mixing and clarification, centrifugal separation again can be filled after the finished product.
The best process formula: 30% lotus leaf extract, 6% sugar, 0.05% citric acid, 0.5% dietary fiber, 0.05% refined carrageenan, so as to produce a delicate taste, refreshing, rounded lotus leaf functional drinks.
3.3 Milk beverage Shao Hu et al. developed a functional milk beverage with lotus leaf and mangosteen leaf by adding lotus leaf and mangosteen leaf extract and other auxiliary materials as raw materials, and the process: the lotus leaf was heated up and then extracted by hot water, and the milk beverage was produced by adding lotus leaf and mangosteen leaf extract and other auxiliary materials in the right amount.
Process flow: The lotus leaf infusion obtained after hot water maceration is mixed with the hot water maceration of mangosteen leaf infusion, then treated with color protection, then blended with sugar solution, stabilizer solution, citric acid solution, fresh cow’s milk and so on, and then preheated, homogenized, sterilized, and then can be filled with finished products.
The best formula for the drink is: 35% fresh cow’s milk, 30% lotus leaf extract, 15% mangosteen leaf extract, 10% sugar, 0.15% citric acid, 0.15% compound stabilizer.
Zhou Taoying developed a kind of yogurt with anti-tumor and anti-cancer functions with fresh milk, fresh lotus leaf juice and milk powder as main raw materials.
Process: raw milk after purification, standardization, and fresh lotus leaf juice, lotus leaf crude flavonoids, stabilizers, sucrose, milk powder and other ingredients, and then preheating and homogenization, sterilization and cooling can be inoculated, and then filling and fermentation, and finally after maturing that is to become a finished product.
The formula of lotus leaf yogurt is as follows: 12% of lotus leaf juice, 3% of milk powder, 5% of sugar and 0.05% of lotus leaf flavonoid.