It was called "water chestnut" in ancient times, also known as water chestnut and sand horn. It is an aquatic plant, belonging to Trapaceae or Lysimachiaceae. It is one of the famous native products in China, and has been cultivated for more than 3000 years. The common varieties are Yuanbaoling, Heshangling, Lanjiaoling, Bailing, Hongling and Wuling. Water chestnut meat is thick and sweet, suitable for all ages, raw and cooked, as good as chestnut. Raw food can be used as fruit, and cooked food can replace grain. The nutritional value of water chestnut is comparable to that of chestnut. Every100g of fresh water chestnut meat contains 3.6g of protein, 0.5g of fat and 24g of sugar. It also contains niacin, riboflavin, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron and other nutrients, and contains a variety of amino acids. It is regarded as the fruit of health preservation and a good medicinal diet for autumn tonic.

Eleocharis tuberosa is a kind of cold food, which can help to disinfect the stomach and reduce fever. Chinese medicine believes that eating water chestnut can "replenish the five internal organs, not hungry but intellectual man fit". Ancient people thought that eating water chestnut can strengthen the body, that is, water chestnut has the function of losing weight and bodybuilding, which may be related to the fact that water chestnut does not contain fat that makes people fat in the world. Water chestnut also has many medicinal functions. Li Shizhen said in Compendium of Materia Medica: Eating water chestnut can "replenish the spleen and stomach, strengthen the legs and knees, strengthen physical strength and benefit qi", and said that "water chestnut porridge benefits the stomach and relieves internal heat." It is beneficial for the elderly to eat regularly. Eating in summer also has the effects of "flowing water, removing summer heat and detoxifying".

Water chestnut is also an anticancer medicinal food. According to modern pharmacological experiments, water chestnut has a miraculous effect of preventing cancer. ——WTTC (9 g of Coix seed, 9 g of wisteria, 9 g of terminalia chebula, 60 g of decoction) is made from water chestnut in Japan. In recent years, some people use the fruit of water chestnut as an adjuvant treatment for esophageal cancer, breast cancer and uterine cancer. The research results of experts and scholars in Taiwan Province Province show that the main reason why Eleocharis tuberosa has anti-cancer effect is that it contains an anti-cancer substance called AH- 13, which obviously inhibits the degeneration and tissue proliferation of ascites cancer cells.