Ribbed Gourd

Scientific name of Ribbed Gourd or Luffa: Luffa acutangula

Name of Ribbed Gourd in different languages:-

English: Sponge gourd, Angled loofah, Ribbed gourd

Sanskrit: Tiktha koshathaki, Dharaphala, Garahari

Hindi: Jhimani, कड़वीतुरई – Karviturai

Tamil: Peyppirkam, Akacavenkkoti

Malayalam: Peechil-പീച്ചിൽ

Plant description:

Ribbed Gourd is a climber vine, lengthen up to 15 m., leaves are round, angled, lobed and covered with small hairs, up to 20 cm long, palmately 5 to 7 angled and scabrid. The flowers are yellow, five petalled both female and male flowers appear in the same plant, in axillaries. Fruits are long, ribbed, spongy, length up to 1 feet, used as a vegetable, ripen fruits contain fiber which is used as a washing brush, up to15 to 30 cm long, clavate-oblong, tapering to apex.

Leaf Arrangement

Shape-Cordate	Margin-Entire	Venation-palmate

Useful plant parts:

Fruit, Leaf, root

Medicinal uses:

Splenetic, hemorrhoids, ringworm, leprosy, purgative, emetic, seeds contain anthelmintic properties.

Chemical contents:

luffin, cucurbitacins, saponin glycoside, enzyme, amino acids, arginine, glycine, threonine, lysine, alanine, asparagines, aspartic, glutamic acids, oleanolic acid, and leucines.

Ribbed Gourd is used as an ingredient to prepare the Ayurveda medicines like:

Panchatikta Ghrita