The large leaves of the Anguila Panga look like the body of an eel.  Hence the leaves are believed to be a particularly fitting wrap
for steaming eels over the fire. In Amazonian aesthetic this symbolic correspondence between leaf and fish means the the two are especially delicious when cooked together. Like yacami panga, anguila panga is used as a medicine to transfer traits of the animal it resembles to human beings.  The electric qualities of the eel are believed to cure rheumatism.  Hence a poultice of heated anguila panga leaves are applied to the affected joints. Tod D. Swanson.