Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Unani
Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), of the Cucurbitaceae family. Vigorous trailing or climbing annual vine, softly hairy, with large white night-opening flowers and a hard-shelled variable fruit; native range: Probably native to tropical Africa; one of the oldest domesticated plants, carried in deep antiquity across Asia and the Americas as both food and vessel. Globally recognized as iksvaku / alabu / tumbi in Sanskrit, lauki / ghia / kaddu in Hindi, hu lu (葫芦) in Chinese, qar' / al-qar' al-yaqtin (قرع) in Arabic, and calabash, white-flowered gourd, long melon, dudhi in English. The part used is fruit (the sweet, non-bitter cultivated type); fruit pulp and juice, rind and seed. The pale-green fruit is watery, mild and faintly sweet when young, cool and bland on the tongue; the mature shell dries to a hard, hollow, resonant calabash.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
BOTTLE GOURD
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Bottle gourd
- Scientific name
- Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.
- Family
- Cucurbitaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit (the sweet, non-bitter cultivated type); fruit pulp and juice, rind and seed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet · bland
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
- Unani
- sweet · bland (insipid, watery)
Temperature
TCM: cool (some texts reckon it neutral)
Ayurveda: cooling (sheeta)
Unani: cold & moist (2nd degree)
convergence: all {witness_count} witnesses agree on a cooling, thirst-quenching nature — none calls the sweet fruit warming
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Lung · Small Intestine · Bladder
- Unani
- stomach · liver
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- promotes urination and drains water, disperses swelling and reduces edema, clears heat
- Ayurveda
- mutrala (diuretic), hridya (cardiac tonic), pittaghna, dahaprashamana (relieves burning), brimhana yet light — a nourishing convalescent food
- Unani
- mubarrid (refrigerant), murattib (moistener), musakkin (sedative to the hot and bilious), mulattif; quenches thirst and calms restlessness
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the bitter (wild or reverted) fruit is poisonous and must never be used; cold, damp and kapha-deficient conditions, chronic diarrhoea and weak digestion; excess juice on an empty stomach
- Toxicity
- bitter bottle-gourd pulp and juice carry cucurbitacins and cause acute poisoning — violent vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, hypotension and collapse; only the sweet, non-bitter fruit is safe, and a bitter mouthful should be spat out at once
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