white-flowered gourd, Lagenaria siceraria (synonym Lagenaria vulgaris Ser.), also known as opo squash (from Tagalog: upo) or long melon, is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe.
The fresh fruit has a light-green smooth skin and a white flesh. Rounder varieties are called calabash gourds. They grow in a variety of shapes: they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, more than a metre long. Because bottle gourds are also called "calabashes", they are sometimes confused with the hard, hollow fruits of the unrelated calabash tree, Crescentia cujete, whose fruits are also used to make utensils, containers, and musical instruments.
The gourd was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but for use as water containers. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Africa to Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration, or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to be in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
Bottle gourd (Calabash) nutrition facts
Bottle gourd or calabash is a delicately flavored, cucurbita family vegetable. It is one of the chief culinary vegetables in many tropical and temperate regions around the world.
Botanically, calabash belongs to the broader cucurbitaceae (gourd) family of vegetables, in the genus: Lagenaria. Scientific name: Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. Some of common names are white-flower gourd, opo-squash, long squash, etc, in the west and doodhi or lauki in the Indian subcontinent.
Health benefits of Bottle gourd
Bottle gourd is one of the least calorie vegetable, providing just 14 calories per 100 g. It is one of the vegetables recommended by the dieticians in weight-control programs.
Fresh gourds contain small quantities of folates, contain about 6 µg/100g (Provide just 1.5% of RDA). Folate helps reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in the newborns when taken by anticipant mothers during their early months of pregnancy.
Fresh calabash-gourd is a moderate source of vitamin-C (100 g of raw frit provides 10 mg or about 17% of RDA). Vitamin-C, one of the powerful natural antioxidants that helps human body scavenge deleterious free radicals one of the reasons for cancer development.
Calabash facilitates easy digestion and movement of food through the bowel until it is excreted from the body. Thus, it helps in relieving indigestion and constipation problems.
Selection and storage
Bottle gourds can be available around the season in the regions wherever suitable conditions for their growth exist. In the markets, look for fresh produce featuring tender, medium size, uniform, light green color fruit. Take a close look of its stem, which may offer a valuable hint whether the produce is fresh or aged.
Avoid those with oversize, mature, yellow-discoloration, cuts and bruise on their surface. Tiny spots on the surface, however, would not lessen their quality.
At home, store them inside the refrigerator set at adequate humidity where they stay fresh for 3-4 days.
The fresh fruit has a light-green smooth skin and a white flesh. Rounder varieties are called calabash gourds. They grow in a variety of shapes: they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, more than a metre long. Because bottle gourds are also called "calabashes", they are sometimes confused with the hard, hollow fruits of the unrelated calabash tree, Crescentia cujete, whose fruits are also used to make utensils, containers, and musical instruments.
The gourd was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but for use as water containers. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Africa to Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration, or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to be in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
Bottle gourd (Calabash) nutrition facts
Bottle gourd or calabash is a delicately flavored, cucurbita family vegetable. It is one of the chief culinary vegetables in many tropical and temperate regions around the world.
Botanically, calabash belongs to the broader cucurbitaceae (gourd) family of vegetables, in the genus: Lagenaria. Scientific name: Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. Some of common names are white-flower gourd, opo-squash, long squash, etc, in the west and doodhi or lauki in the Indian subcontinent.
Health benefits of Bottle gourd
Bottle gourd is one of the least calorie vegetable, providing just 14 calories per 100 g. It is one of the vegetables recommended by the dieticians in weight-control programs.
Fresh gourds contain small quantities of folates, contain about 6 µg/100g (Provide just 1.5% of RDA). Folate helps reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in the newborns when taken by anticipant mothers during their early months of pregnancy.
Fresh calabash-gourd is a moderate source of vitamin-C (100 g of raw frit provides 10 mg or about 17% of RDA). Vitamin-C, one of the powerful natural antioxidants that helps human body scavenge deleterious free radicals one of the reasons for cancer development.
Calabash facilitates easy digestion and movement of food through the bowel until it is excreted from the body. Thus, it helps in relieving indigestion and constipation problems.
Selection and storage
Bottle gourds can be available around the season in the regions wherever suitable conditions for their growth exist. In the markets, look for fresh produce featuring tender, medium size, uniform, light green color fruit. Take a close look of its stem, which may offer a valuable hint whether the produce is fresh or aged.
Avoid those with oversize, mature, yellow-discoloration, cuts and bruise on their surface. Tiny spots on the surface, however, would not lessen their quality.
At home, store them inside the refrigerator set at adequate humidity where they stay fresh for 3-4 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment