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36. CUCURMTACEAE
1. Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. 3: 513. 1881. (Fig. 159).
Cucurbtta hispida Thunb.—Cucurbita pepo Lour.—Cucurbita farinosa Bl.—Cucurbita pepoaspera
Blanco—Benincasa cerifera Savi.—Gymnopetaium calyculatum Miq.
Engl. Ash Pumpkin; Sinh. Alupuhul; Tarn. Kalyanappushinikkay, Pusanikkai,
Pushini; Hindi Golkaddu, Kondha, Kudimah, Kumra, Petha, Phuthia; Sans. Brihatphala.
Ghrinavasa, Gramyakarkati, Karkaru. Karkotika, Kumbhanda, Kunjaphala, Kushmanda,
Kushmandaka, Kushmandi, Kushpandaha, Nagapushpaphala. Pitapushpa, Pushpaphala,
Shikhivardhaka, Suphala, Timisha.
A large trailing or climbing plant with stout, angular, hispid stems, tendrils 2-fid; leaves
10—25 cm diameter, reniform—orbicular, cordate, more or less deeply 5-lobed, hispid beneath;
petioles 7.5—10 cm long without glands; flowers large, yellow, monoecious, all solitary
without bracts; sepals 5, fused into a campanulate calyx-tube, lobes leaf-like, serrate; petals 5,
free, obovate; male flower: stamens 3. inserted near the mouth of the tube, filaments angular
hispid at the base, cells sigmoid; female flower: ovary inferior, oblong, densely hairy, style
thick with 3 flexuous stigmas, ovules numerous, horizontal; fruit 30—45 cm long, broadly,
cylindric. not ribbed, hairy, ultimately covered with a waxy bloom: seeds many, oblong,
compressed and margined.
Illustrations. Rheede, Hort. Ind. Mai. 8: pt. 3. 1678—1703; Kirtikar and Basu, Indian
Med. Plants, pi. 451. l°-33.
Distribution. Cultivated throughout I ndia, Ceylon and other tropical countries.
It is probably a native of Java but cultivated. In Ceylon it is mostly cultivated in the dry
zone during the rainy season and elsewhere throughout the year.
Ceylon. Central Prov., Peradeniya, Bot. Gard., cultivated* Herb. Peradeniya, April
1897. Western Prov.. Colombo. Ferguson.
Composition. The fruit contains a fixed oil, starch, cucurbitine, resin, the proteins, myosin
and vitellin, sugar and vitamins B and C.
Uses. The fruit forms a major constituent in the preparations for treatment of epilepsy,
haemoptysis, phthisis, cough, asthma, ulceration of lungs, retention of urine, hiccough and
internal haemorrhages.
The fresh juice is a specific antidote for mercuric, alcoholic and snake-bite poisoning.
It is used for insanity, epilepsy and other nervous diseases. The cortical portion of the fruit is
given for diabetes. A decoction of the leaves with rock salt is given for cholera. Decoctions
of the stem and fresh juice of the fruit are also antidotes for many vegetable poisons. In Indo-
China, the leaves and seeds are given as a purgative. The seeds are anthelmintic and are
beneficial for cases of taenia and as a diuretic.
The unripe fruit is cooked and eaten as a vegetable, while the pulp of the ripe fruit is
candied into a delicacy. The roasted seeds are also eaten.
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