Trichosanthes
Snake gourd ( Trichosanthes cucumerina )
Trichosanthes is an Asian genus of the Cucurbitaceae ( Cucurbitaceae ), with around 100 species. Commercially important is the snake gourd.
Features
The representatives are small to large climbing plants, mostly perennial, rarely annual. The tendrils are branched with 2-5, rarely up to 9 knots, they are rarely simple. The plants are dioecious, rarely monoecious.
The leaves are simple, in whole or lobed or compound, then with 3 to 5 lobes. The leaf margin is occupied scattered with small teeth of approximately 1 mm in length. The leaves are mostly occupied with glands.
The flowers are unisexual. The petals are usually finely hairy white to pink or rarely with red nerves. The edge of the petals is long haired and additionally frayed. In the male inflorescences, the flowers appear singly, but usually stalked panicles, sometimes together with a single flower in the axils of the leaves. The flowers have a distinct pedicel, The bracts are usually available with or without glands. The flower tube is tubular, extended mostly to the opening. On the inside it is usually hairy. The five sepals are entire, toothed or lobed. The crown is fused and deeply five-lobed, or the petals are free. The stamens are free and short. Of the two anthers are bithekisch, a unithekisch, all anthers are usually connected to an elongated, truncated synandrium. The ovary rudiments or the discus are visible as three elongated body at the base of the flower tube.
The female flowers are always individually at the nodes. The perianth corresponds to the in the male flowers. The ovary is spherical to ellipsoidal or elongated and contains many ovules. The stylus is slim, the scar (up to five times) deeply lobed triplicate. Staminodes absent.
The fruits are berries hanging from ovoid, ellipsoidal or spherical shape, rarely cylindrical. They are 3-15 cm long, var only Trichosanthes cucumerina anguina they reach lengths of up to 100 cm. You are in fleshy - pulpös. The exocarp is leathery to woody and red to green with lighter stripes. The surface is smooth, glabrous or hairy. The mesocarp is white to yellowish, sometimes fibrous. The pulp is greenish - black, white or reddish. The numerous seeds usually sit tightly packed and are very variable in shape: slightly flattened to strong, or inflated with two sides; usually with the edge, the edge very, hard nut or wavy, the surface is not or only slightly sculptured.
Dissemination
The distribution of the genus ranges from South, Southeast and East Asia to tropical Australia and up to Fiji.
System
Trichosanthes forms together with Gymnopetalum the subtribe Trichosanthinae in the tribe Trichosantheae the family Cucurbitaceae. It has approximately 100 species, the most species-rich genus of the family.
The occurring in Thailand species:
- Trichosanthes cucumerina
- Trichosanthes dolichosperma
- Trichosanthes dunniana
- Erosa Trichosanthes
- Trichosanthes inthanonensis
- Trichosanthes kerrii
- Trichosanthes kostermansii
- Trichosanthes laceribractea
- Trichosanthes ovigera
- Trichosanthes pallida
- Trichosanthes phonsenae
- Trichosanthes pubera
- Trichosanthes quinquangulata
- Trichosanthes siamensis
- Trichosanthes tricuspidata
- Trichosanthes truncata
- Trichosanthes villosa
- Trichosanthes wawrae
Use
In addition to the cucumber a number of species are used medicinally, especially in China. These include:
- Trichosanthes dioica Roxb. is a dioecious climber with perennial rootstock. It grows wild in South Asia and in culture. The immature fruits are used as vegetables and loading. The fruit is smooth, oblong and 8 to 12 inches long. You diuretic, laxative and strengthens the heart. It is also used in bronchitis, bile, and fever.
- Trichosanthes bracheata ( Lam.) Voigt is a perennial dioecious climber. The fruits are used to treat asthma and ear aches, as a carminative and laxative. Grated and mixed with coconut oil it is applied to wounds.
- Trichosanthes cordata Roxb. Tubers are used as a tonic, with enlarged spleen and liver. A mixture of grated root and coconut oil is used to treat leprosy ulcers.
- Trichosanthes nervifolia L. is used as a tonic and antipyretic. The fruit is also used for dental pain.
- Trichosanthes wallichiana Wight: Crushed leaves are used externally after a miscarriage. Ripe fruits are mixed with opium used as a poison.
Documents
- Brigitta E.E. Duyfjes, Kanchana Pruesapan: The genus Trichosanthes L. ( Cucurbitaceae ) in Thailand. Thai Forrest Bulletin, Volume 32, 2004, pp. 76-109.