Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Ridged gourd (Luffa acutangula), of the Cucurbitaceae family. Climbing annual vine with tendrils and long club-shaped fruits carrying sharp lengthwise ridges; native range: India and tropical Asia; grown throughout the warm world as a vegetable. Globally recognized as koshātakī · rājakoshātakī in Sanskrit, torai, kali torai in Hindi, peerkangai in Tamil, and ridged gourd, angled loofah, ribbed gourd in English. The part used is fruit; seed; leaf; the wild bitter fruit for medicine, the sweet cultivated fruit as food. Ridged green fruits, the cultivated kind mild and sweetish, the wild kind intensely bitter and nauseating; the ripe fruit dries to a net of tough fibre.
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.
RIDGED GOURD
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- ridged gourd
- Scientific name
- Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.
- Family
- Cucurbitaceae
Form
- Part used
- fruit; seed; leaf; the wild bitter fruit for medicine, the sweet cultivated fruit as food
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- bitter (tikta) · sweet (madhura, in the cultivated fruit)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sheeta)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- vamana (emetic, in the bitter fruit), virechana (purgative), kamalahara (relieves jaundice), pittarechana (drains bile), shothahara (reduces swelling), krimighna (antiparasitic), stanyashodhana (cleanses the milk)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the bitter wild fruit is avoided in pregnancy, in children, the aged and the weak; it is not a domestic drug
- Toxicity
- the bitter fruit is a drastic irritant — overdose brings violent vomiting, purging and cramp; the sweet cultivated fruit is a benign food
This is the card. Sign in for the full four-tradition entry — the aligned TCM · Ayurveda · Western · Unani reading, actions, dosing and cautions.