The Life-Saving Gourd That Can Also Kill You

One of the most useful crops in the world is also very toxic.

The bottle gourd is one of the oldest plants ever domesticated by modern humans. Archaeological evidence shows it was cultivated in India as far back as 2,000 BCE . It was prized long before pottery existed, hollowed out and dried to carry water, store grain, and even make musical instruments . In China, it’s a symbol of longevity and good luck . Among the Karbi people in Assam, giving one as a gift is enough to declare a couple’s engagement .

It grows mostly in India, and depending on how it’s grown, it can take on different shapes. Some grow round. Those are usually turned into bowls, containers, or decorative pieces. Others grow long like a snake. Those are harvested young and used for cooking. In Seychelles, they grow them on trellises and use them in fish soups and traditional ladob and bouyon dishes .

But if you let them get too ripe, or if they grow under stressful conditions like drought, poor soil, or extreme temperatures, something changes . The plant develops high levels of a toxic compound called cucurbitacins. It’s a defense mechanism, a bitter poison meant to stop insects and herbivores from eating it .

Here’s where it gets kinda serious. Cucurbitacins are cytotoxic. They tear up your gut lining. They cause bleeding in your stomach, which is what gives you violent diarrhea and vomiting . And as that’s happening, you get a dangerous drop in blood pressure. Cucurbitacin D, the most potent subtype, increases capillary permeability, meaning your blood vessels start leaking fluid . Your blood pressure falls. You go into shock.

A 62 year old man in India drank a glass of bitter bottle gourd juice one morning. Within three to five minutes, he started vomiting. Within an hour, he had loose motions. He went into shock, his blood pressure dropping to 80 mmHg. Ryle’s tube aspirated frank blood. He was intubated, resuscitated, put on vasopressors. He died the next day .

A 47 year old man in the United States drank a bitter bottle gourd smoothie to treat his hypertension. Within 30 minutes, he had abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. He became hypotensive, lethargic, then nonresponsive. He developed lactic acidosis, acute kidney injury, and acquired polycythemia so severe it later caused embolic infarctions in his brain. He survived after six days in the hospital, but with lasting damage .

Once it’s in your system, it’s pretty game over, because as of now, there’s no antidote. Treatment is purely supportive. Fluids. Blood pressure management. Hope your kidneys hold out .

Cooking the fruit denatures the cucurbitacins . That’s why people have eaten cooked bottle gourd safely for thousands of years. But the juice, especially if it tastes bitter, can kill you.

A plant used for bowls, for soup, for wedding gifts, for carrying water across deserts. A fruit that can save your life as a vegetable and end it as a juice. No antidote. No second chance.

Which is… pretty insane.