Momordica cochinchinensis, Momordica macrophylla
Gac fruit, Spiny bitter-cucumber, Chinese bitter-cucumberFamily: Cucurbitaceae
Origin: SE Asia
Chinese bitter-cucumbers are yellow to reddish orange in color and have pale, firm flesh. The Indian is darker and thinner than the Chinese, while the Thai is white when immature. If left on the plant to ripen completely, the fruit bursts open. The light brown seeds are embedded in white, cottony flesh; but the seed coverings do taste pleasantly sweet and are often used as a condiment.
Momordica Cochinchinencis is a traditional medicinal plant in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and the Caribbean, and has been used since early time. It was commonly grown in gardens and gave red fruit with red pulp. This plant is quite familiar to women; they know perfectly how to conserve such fruits and make use of them for various purposes such as cooking glutinous rice with fresh pulp, making dried pulp candy, jam, for the treatment of blur eyes, malnutrition as they contain active substances (now called pre-vitamin A).It is a good vegetable to hollow out and fill; but also delicious is curries, pickled, stir-fried, and salads; but it needs to be blanched before using as it cannot be eaten raw.
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