A large, pubescent, climbing or trailing herb with stout, 5-angled stems and bifid tendrils. Leaves to 15 cm diameter, ovate or orbicular, base cordate, margins dentate, usually 5-lobed; petiole long, with 2 glands at its apex. Flowerslarge, white solitary, monoecious or dioecious, the male long and the female short-peduncled; calyx tube funnel-shaped, subcampanulate, teeth 5, narrow, petals 5, free, obovate, crumpled, hairy on both sides. Fruits of variable size and shape, but usually bottle-shaped, up to 1.8 m long, with a hard, durable, smooth shell. Seeds numerous, white, smooth, horizontally compressed with marginal groove.

Antibiotic, antidote, diuretic, emetic, febrifuge, lithontripic, odontalgic, poultice, purgative, vermifuge.

Lagenaria siceraria
Plants for a Future

Arginine, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, choline, cucurbitacin B, cucurbitacin D, folacin, histidine, linoleic acid, lysine, methionine, niacin, oleic acid, palmitic acid, phenylalanine, riboflavin, stearic acid, thiamin, threonine, tryptophan, valine (fruit)

To treat headaches, aching teeth and gums, boils etc. It is also used for the treatment for diabetes mellitus.

Fruits and leaves in doses of 1-5g/kg/day can cause death in animals. Plant reduces ability of liver to synthesize protein, no interference with excretion of bilirubin. Kidney dysfunction and hemoconcentration also occurred.

Sharma PV. Classical Uses of Medicinal Plants.