Botanical name : Luffa acutangula (Linn.) Roxb.
Family : Cucurbitaceae
SANSKRIT SYNONYMS
Dhamargava, Svadukoshataki
AYURVEDIC PROPERTIES
Rasa : Kashaya, Madhura
Guna : Guru
Virya : Seeta
PLANT NAME IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
English : Ribbed gourd, Ridged gourd
Hindi : Tori, Kali tori
Malayalam : Peechil, Peechinga
Distribution – Cultivated as vegetable throughout India.
PLANT DESCRIPTION
A large, annual, soft wooded tendril climber. Leaves simple, orbicular-cordate, palmate, with 5-7 lobes and scrubby. Flowers yellow, males in axillary racemes and females solitary in axils. Fruits oblong, with 10 sharp ridges, fusiform. Seeds black, ovoid, compressed, engulfed in fibrous tuft.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Plant pacifies vitiated vata, pitta, skin diseases, jaundice, splenomegaly, hemorrhoids, and general weakness. Young fruit is used as vegetable.
Useful part : Leaves, Fruits, Seeds.