cicinda :

Snake gourd is one of the cucurbit vegetables grown particularly in India . Its a very ancient ayurvedic medicinal herb and vegetable. Its used since the times of charaka & Sushruta since 2000 years.

Its very beneficial to improve gastric health. Its root, leaf and fruit are used in many ayurvedic medicines

Taxonomical Classification

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Family: Cucurbitaceae
Genus: Trichosanthes
Species: Tri. cucumerina

VERNACULAR NAMES

Sanskrit: Amrithaphala, beejagarbha
English: snake gourd ,vipers gourd
Hindi: Chachinda/ Parval
Telugu: Potlakaya ,adavi potla
Bengali: Patol
Marathi: Jangli padavala
Gujarathi: Paraval
Tamil: Pudalankai, alakaipputal
Malayalam: Padavalanga
Kannada: Bettada padavala
French: Serpent vegetal
German: Schlangen- Haargurke
Tulu: Padavalakkai

Synonyms

Synonyms in Ayurveda: cicinda, shvetaraji, sudirgha, grihulaka

Rasa: Katu Tikta
Guna: Laghu Ruksha
Veerya: Ushna
Vipaka: Katu
Karma: Kaphahara Pittahara

Cultivation:

Cultivated from seeds

Parts used for medicinal purpose

Fruit, Leaves, Root, ,

Morphology:

Trichosanthes cucumerina is a monoecious annual vine climbing by means of tendrils. Leaves are palmately lobed, up to 25 cm long. Flowers are unisexual, white, opening at night, with long branching hairs on the margins of the petals. These hairs are curled up in the daytime when the flower is closed, but unfurl at night to form a delicate lacy display . Fruits can be up to 200 cm long, deep red at maturity, hanging below the vine.

The related Japanese snake gourd (Trichosanthes pilosa,sometimes called T. ovigera or T. cucumeroides), very similar in vegetative morphology, but the fruit of T. pilosa is round to egg-shaped, only about 7 cm long

Geographical distribution:

Trichosanthes cucumerina is found in the wild across much of South and Southeast Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar(Burma), and southern China (Guangxi and Yunnan). It is also regarded as native in northern Australia.and naturalized in Florida, parts of Africa and on various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans

General Use:

It is popular in the cuisines of South Asiaand Southeast Asia and is now grown in some home gardens in Africa. With some cultivars, the immature fruit has an unpleasant odor and a slightly bitter taste, both of which disappear in cooking. The fruit becomes too bitter to eat as it reaches maturity, but it does contain a reddish pulp that is used in Africa as a substitute for tomatoes.

The shoots, tendrils, and leaves are also eaten as greens.

KEY WORDS: Snake Gourd/ Pointed Gourd