Trichosanthes cucumerina (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

1, flowering shoot; 2, top of female flower in longitudinal section; 3, fruit of cultivated plant; 4, seed (P. Verheij-Hayes)

Trichosanthes cucumerina L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 2: 1008 (1753).

Synonyms

Trichosanthes anguina L. (1753),
Trichosanthes pedatifolia Miq. (1856),
Trichosanthes reniformis Miq. (1856).

Vernacular names

Snake gourd (En)
Patole, serpent végétal (Fr)
Indonesia: paria belut (general), petola ular (Malay, Moluccas), pare welut (Javanese)
Malaysia: ketola ular, timun bengkok, petola ular (Peninsular)
Philippines: melon-daga, pakupis, tabubok (Tagalog)
Laos: ngoo ngèèwz
Thailand: buap ngu, nom phichit (central), ma noi (northern)
Vietnam: dây na tây, dưa núi, mư ớp tây.

Distribution

From India and Sri Lanka to Indo-China, southern China, Thailand and throughout Malesia towards northern Australia; cultivated in this area and elsewhere.

Uses

Fruits of wild plants are used as a purgative and a vermifuge. In Indonesia, the inner pulp of the fruit is made into a syrup to treat cough. Immature fruits of cultivated forms are eaten boiled as a vegetable or in curries. Young shoots and leaves are also edible. The fruits become inedible upon ripening. In West Africa, the red fruit pulp is used as a kind of cheap tomato paste. Fruits of the wild forms are very bitter and inedible.

Observations

A monoecious, annual vine up to 6 m long, stem 4-angular, sparsely pubescent or glabrescent.
Leaves suborbicular or slightly kidney-shaped to broadly ovate, shallowly to deeply 3-7-lobed, 7-10 cm × 6-13 cm (in cultivated forms up to 25 cm across), base cordate, lobes rounded to obtuse, sparsely hirsute to almost glabrous on both sides.
Corolla about 3 cm in diameter; male flowers in lax, 3-25 cm long racemes, bracts small, up to 2 mm long; female flowers solitary or rarely in pairs.
Fruit ovoid, 4.5-7.5 cm × 3-4 cm, ripening to yellow or orange (in cultivated forms fruit linear, up to 100 cm long).
Seeds ovate-truncate, compressed.

The cultivated forms are traditionally distinguished as a species ( T. anguina L.), subspecies (subsp. anguina (L.) Greb.) or variety (var. anguina (L.) Haines), though it seems more appropriate to classify these in a cultivar group (e.g. cv. group Snake Gourd). Wild T. cucumerina is found in open forest, forest margins and scrub vegetation, up to 1000(-1500) m altitude.

Selected sources

[97] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
[233] Chandrasekar, B., Mukherjee, B. & Mukherjee, S.K., 1989. Blood sugar lowering potentiality of selected Cucurbitaceae plants of Indian origin. Indian Journal of Medical Research 90: 300-305.
[486] Gildemacher, B.H., Jansen, G.J. & Chayamarit, K., 1993. Trichosanthes L. In: Siemonsma, J.S. & Kasem Piluek (Editors): Plant Resources of South East Asia No 8. Vegetables. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. pp. 271-274.
[721] Keraudren-Aymonin, M., 1975. Cucurbitacées [Cucurbitaceae]. In: Vidal, J.E. & Galibert, Y. (Editors): Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. Vol. 15. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. 123 pp.
[759] Kolte, R.M., Bisan, V.V., Kalorey, D.R. & Harne, S.D., 1996. Chloroform extract of roots of Trichosanthes cucumerina Linn. as antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Indian Journal of Veterinary Research 5(1): 35-38.
[763] Konath, S.S., Nadimpalli, S.K. & Swamy, M.J., 1996. Purification in high yield and characterisation of the galactose-specific lectin from the seeds of snake gourd (Trichosanthes anguina). Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International 39(2): 243-252.
[792] Kumar, C.P. et al., 1997. A comparative study on the hypolipidemic activity of eleven different pectins. Journal of Food Science and Technology 34(2): 103-107.
[886] Mahmood, I., Masood, A., Saxena, S.K. & Husain, S.I., 1979. Effect of some plant extracts on the mortality of Meloidogyne incognita and Rotylenchulus reniformis. Acta Botanica Indica 7(2): 129-132.
[1128] Pételot, A., 1952-1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
[1134] Philcox, D., 1997. Cucurbitaceae. In: Dassanayake, M.D. & Clayton, W.D. (Editors): A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol. 11. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. pp. 8-46.
[1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
[1263] Rugayah & de Wilde, W.J.J.O., 1997. Trichosanthes L. (Cucurbitaceae) in Java. Blumea 42(2): 471-482.
[1313] Shanavas, K.R., Elyas, K.K. & Vasudevan, D.M., 1995. Purification and some properties of a lectin from the seeds of Trichosanthes anguina. Biologia Plantarum 37(3): 417-422.
[1443] Telford, I.R., 1982. Cucurbitaceae. In: George, A.S. (Editor): Flora of Australia. Vol. 8. Lecythidales to Batales. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, Australia. pp. 158-198.

Main genus page

Trichosanthes (Medicinal plants)
See also under Trichosanthes (PROSEA Vegetables) for the vegetable use.

Authors

M.S.M. Sosef, E. Boer & N. Bunyapraphatsara