A quick-growing perennial climber growing to 6m. Roots starchy and tuberous. Leaves pale green and deeply-lobed. Spikes up to 8 ins. long. Male flowers several fringed and white. Female flowers solitary. Fruits 4 in. long, edible (in strange, oriental ways), yellow and egg-shaped.

Febrifuge (leaves and stem); antibacterial, anticholesterolemic, antifungal, depurative, emollient, expectorant and laxative (fruit); antibiotic, abortifacient, anti-inflammatory, febrifuge, galactogogue, laxative, oxytocic, sialagogue and uterine tonic (root); antitussive, emollient and expectorant (seed)

Plants For A Future

The fruits are used in the treatment of pulmonary infections with yellow and thick sputum, chest pains, stuffy feelings in the chest, constipation and dry stools. The fruit is traditionally prepared as a winter soup to ward off colds and influenza. The rind of the fruit is used to treat a number of ailments, including cancer, jaundice, retained placenta, bronchial infections with thick phlegm and sore throat. A sponge soaked in root juice is placed in the vagina to induced an abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy. The root is taken internally in the treatment of diabetes, dry coughs, and to assist in the second stage of labour. It is used externally for sores, abscesses, and carbuncles. The root and/or the seed is powdered and used in the treatment of mammary cancer.

Contraindicated in patients with diarrhea due to Cold syndromes of a Deficiency type of the Spleen and Stomach.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 634, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.