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Blue lotus

Nymphaea caerulea

Nymphaeaceae // flowers

Also known as: blue water lily, Egyptian blue lotus

Legal status varies by jurisdiction — see Legal

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Uses & evidence

Uses and evidence recorded
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Preparation

No preparation information recorded

Safety

Safety information available
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Research

No linked research on file
Open research →

Overview

Plant parts

flowers

Known constituents

nuciferine/apomorphine often reported, but product studies show inconsistent identification

Research corpus coverage

Ethnobotanical / entheogenicPet safety

Chemistry notes

  • Principal reported constituents include nuciferine/apomorphine often reported, but product studies show inconsistent identification; broad class: dopaminergic/serotonergic hypotheses; chemistry uncertain.

Uses & Evidence

Traditional / historical use

Documented traditional use — not a claim of established efficacy.

No traditional-use records in this corpus.

Modern evidence

  • Commercial 'blue lotus' products may contain other Nymphaea/Nelumbo species or adulterants.

    MODERATE · Nymphaea Cults in Ancient Egypt and the New World: A Lesson in Empirical Pharmacology

    Identity/attribution caution.

Safety

Human

  • Caution

    Safety severity is MODERATE: acute psychiatric symptoms and product adulteration/mislabeling reported; toxicology sparse

    Adulteration · MODERATE · Chemical Composition, Market Survey, and Safety Assessment of Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea Savigny) Extracts

Additional safety notes (general, unstructured)

Free-text safety notes carried from their source — not broken out by species, route, or hazard type, and not equivalent to the structured records above. Each note names the kind of source it came from.

  • Safety severity is MODERATE: acute psychiatric symptoms and product adulteration/mislabeling reported; toxicology sparse

    MODERATE · Chemical Composition, Market Survey, and Safety Assessment of Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea Savigny) Extracts

Preparation × species risk matrix

Unknown means insufficient evidence was located — not that a form is safe.

Cats

  • tinctureCaution
  • concentrated extractUnknown
  • essential oilUnknown
  • glyceriteUnknown
  • infused oilUnknown
  • salveUnknown
  • smoke/combustionUnknown
  • tea/infusionUnknown
  • whole herbUnknown

Dogs

  • tinctureCaution
  • concentrated extractUnknown
  • essential oilUnknown
  • glyceriteUnknown
  • infused oilUnknown
  • salveUnknown
  • smoke/combustionUnknown
  • tea/infusionUnknown
  • whole herbUnknown

Identity

  • Synonym

    GBIF lists Castalia acutiloba (DC.) Hand.-Mazz. as a taxonomic synonym of Nymphaea nouchali.

    HIGH · GBIF Species Synonyms API

  • Former name

    GBIF treats the corpus name Nymphaea caerulea Andrews as a synonym and points to Nymphaea nouchali as the accepted usage.

    MODERATE · GBIF Species Match API

Common name

blue water lily, Egyptian blue lotus

Traditions

Ancient Egyptian iconographic and funerary contexts

Egypt and Nile valley // New Kingdom and later evidence // historical evidence with disputed psychoactivity

  • Ethnobotanical

    Blue lotus is documented in Ancient Egyptian iconographic and funerary contexts in Egypt and Nile valley for banquet, funerary and symbolic contexts; psychoactive interpretation disputed.

    DISPUTED · Nymphaea Cults in Ancient Egypt and the New World: A Lesson in Empirical Pharmacology

  • Ritual

    Documented functions include funerary, symbolic, social; these functions are tradition-specific and should not be generalized across cultures.

    DISPUTED · Nymphaea Cults in Ancient Egypt and the New World: A Lesson in Empirical Pharmacology

Sources

Research records are source-linked but may not yet be editorially reviewed.