Water lettuce

Water lettuce has a number of medicinal applications. It is a diuretic and is used to treat some forms of venereal disease, hemorrhoids and dysentery. It also helps to heal tubercular lesions in lungs. The plant is used as an infusion or a decoction, is macerated or dried, etc. The Tikunas, an Amazonian tribe, crush the leaves with salt and apply the mixture as a wart remover. The plant may shelter mosquitoes that transmit malaria and encephalitis.