Water cabbage (Pistia stratiotes) is a water plan which is usually found floating in a calm water or a freshwater pond. It is also popular to be used as aquarium protector. Water cabbage is the only member of Pistia tribe. People also knows its as kayu apung or kapu-kapu. Water cabbage is also called kiambang, but this naming is misguided because the naming of kiambang refers to Salvinia plant.
The origin of Water cabbage is still undefined but it has been known that it spread in all tropical and subtropical region. It can be used for bio filtration, which mean to absorb metal elements from industrial waste.
The essences that are existed in water cabbage is polifenol, flavonoid and tannin. Polifenol has a main utility as natural anti oxidant. Meanwhile, flavonoid also similarly have the essence of fine anti oxidant and tanin is one of anti nutrition element.
Water cabbage is believed to have savory as a medicine of rheumatic, inflammation, diuretic and etc. Furthermore, people usually uses it as a medicine of influenza, fever, whooping cough, gonorrhea, disurea, itchy allergic, dysentery, skin disease and exsim.
Besides it is useful for medical treatment, water cabbage is also able to maintain water quality because it can absorb pollutant or toxic, especially on hapa nursery system. The system is done in order to isolated fish larvae from predator.
The other function of water cabage is as the place of fish egg stick into. Furthermore, it can be found micro organism which is natural food for fish. Moreover, when we find water cabbages on rice field area in Curug Ceheng to become object photo hunting, there is also found damselflies and some of insect species perch on water cabbage.
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