A large, annual climber with slender shortly pubescent, 5-angled stems; tendrils usually 3-branched. Leaves alternate, orbicular in outline, 15 to 20 cm long and wide, 5 to 7 angled or lobed, scabrid on both sides, base cordate, lateral lobes usually obtuse, central lobe acute to subacuminate; petioles 5 to 12 cm long, angular scabrid. Plants monoecious; male flowers yellow with 3 stamens, borne in 10 to 20 flowered racemes, 10 to 15 cm long; female flowers yellow, solitary, in same axils as males, on 5 to 10 cm long peduncles. Fruit cylindrical or club-shaped, tapering towards the base, usually 15 to 30 cm long and 5 cm in diameter, smooth, with 10 prominent, narrowly angled, longitudinal ridges. Seeds compressed, slightly corrugated on edges, not winged, black or white when ripe.

Emetic and purgative (seeds); demulcent, diuretic, bitter-tonic and nutritive (fruit); abortifacient, antipyretic, expectorant, hypoglycemic, laxative, tonic and vermifuge.

PIER

Arginine, glycine, threonine, glutamic acid, leucines, serine, alanine, g-aminobutyric acid and pipecolic acid

In granular conjunctivitis of children, as poultice in haemorrhoids, leprosy and splenic enlargement (leaves); as an antidote for snake poison (plant).

Sharma PV. Classical Uses of Medicinal Plants.