"[Plin. Nat. 22.28.] - THE LOTOMETRA: TWO REMEDIES.
The lotometra is a cultivated lotus; with the seed of it, which resembles millet, the shepherds in Egypt make a coarse bread, which they mostly knead with water or milk. It is said, however, that there is nothing lighter or more wholesome than this bread, so long as it is eaten warm; but that when it gets cold, it becomes heavy and more difficult of digestion. It is a well-known fact, that persons who use it as a diet are never attacked by dysentery, tenesmus, or other affections of the bowels; hence it is, that this plant is reckoned among the remedies for that class of diseases.”
(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)