Gourd Seeds

The bottle gourd is a vigorous annual vine with large, soft, hairy leaves and white flowers that open in the evening. Fruits vary hugely in shape, from long and slender to round or bottle-shaped, and can reach a metre in length. Young fruit is pale green and tender, and mature fruit develops a hard shell. The seeds are flat, oblong, off-white to light brown, 1 to 2 cm long, with a thick edge and sometimes two small ridges. Kernels inside are mild and oily with a flavour a little like pumpkin seed. Seeds are sold dried for sowing, and in some markets shelled or roasted.

The bottle gourd is among the earliest domesticated plants. Archaeological remains and genetic work suggest it was used in Africa and Asia, and that gourds reached the Americas thousands of years ago, probably by drifting across the ocean or carried by early people. The genus name Lagenaria comes from the Latin lagena, meaning a flask, and siceraria derives from a word for a drinking vessel. The word calabash is of uncertain origin, and lauki, dudhi and opo are names from India, Hindi and Philippine languages respectively.

People have used bottle gourds for at least 10,000 years, long before pottery, as water containers, floats, dippers, bowls and musical instruments. Dried shells have been found in archaeological sites in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, including early Peruvian and Mexican sites.

As a food, the tender young fruit has been cooked in South Asia, China, Southeast Asia and Africa, and is a well-known vegetable called lauki or dudhi in India. The seeds were eaten roasted or pounded to flour in parts of Africa and Asia, and oil was extracted from them in some regions, often as a modest household practice.

Bottle gourds also carry deep cultural meaning, as instruments such as the sitar and kora use gourd resonators, as ceremonial containers, and as masks and ornaments. Today the plant is grown worldwide as a vegetable, an ornamental and a craft material, and in some Indian traditions the juice is a popular home drink, although it has also been linked to poisonings when fruit is bitter.

Seeds are dried, roasted and eaten as snacks in some regions, ground into flour, or pressed for oil. Kernels are used in some Indian sweets and in traditional preparations. The fruit is the main edible part, cooked in curries, soups, stews and sweets such as halwa, while shells are dried for containers, instruments, birdhouses and crafts. Seeds are widely sold for planting by gardeners. In folk medicine, parts of the plant have been used for cooling drinks and digestive remedies, though evidence is limited.

Bottle gourd flesh is low in calories and high in water, with modest amounts of vitamins and minerals. Seeds contain oil, protein and fibre, though few studies have examined them as a food, so nutrition data are less established than for pumpkin seeds. Claims for bottle gourd juice lowering cholesterol or blood pressure come mostly from small or animal studies and should be treated as preliminary.