Cucumbers are indigenous to India. , Photo Credit: The Hindu
A family of plants with which humans are closely associated in all parts of the world is called Cucurbitaceae, This diverse family includes watermelons, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins and squash. Less widely cultivated pumpkins include bitter, bottle, wax, snake, sponge, and gourd.
Cucurbits are usually hairy climbers, and the male and female flowers are different. Their fruits – which come in a wide range of colours, flavours, shapes and sizes – are valued as components of a healthy diet. They grow well in the geo-climate of India. The sowing season is usually from November to January, with the fruits ripening in summer.
The extremely wide range of flavors and sizes among cucumbers, from sweet melon to bitter gourd, is the result of shuffling of their mosaic-like chromosome content. Thus, a cucumber has seven chromosomes and a melon has 12, even though they belong to the same genus ( indrayan,
Unlike the potato, which was globalized only 450 years ago, the pumpkin has been an important component of food economies around the world for thousands of years. Carried by ocean currents and adapted to local conditions, modern genomic techniques are needed to understand their geographic origins.
Cucumbers are indigenous to India. Cucumber’s wild relatives are found growing in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Romans brought them to Europe in the 2nd century BC
desert melon
In Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, local people grow varieties of wild melons with water from the scanty monsoon. They are small fruits cooked as vegetables, with little pulp and lots of seeds.
Recent studies have established that the watermelons we see today in India are the product of two independent domestication events. These have lost the bitterness and acidity of the wild fruit, and their leaves, seeds and fruit are larger. Melon was domesticated independently in Africa, but the African melon is smaller and retains some bitterness in taste. Not surprisingly, the melons grown all over the world are of Indian origin.
The influence of different human tastes in different regions of the world is also reflected in bitter gourd. bitter gourd, More recently (800 years ago) domesticated varieties found in Thailand and neighboring countries are larger, less bitter, and have smoother skin that is almost white.
In comparison, Indian varieties with prickly skin are smaller, more pungent, and are grown over a much longer period of time.
anti nutritional
Bitter gourd is a rich source of Vitamin C and minerals. A daily 100-gram serving will provide all the vitamin C (and half of vitamin A) needed by an average-sized person, while contributing only 150 milligrams of fat. In general, cucurbits are the nutritional opposite of processed foods, which are rich in fat and carbohydrates. With a water content of approximately 85–95%, they are sources of low-calorie bulk.
Besides being a dietary mainstay and medicinal value, cucumbers have other interesting uses. Loofah or sponge gourd, when dried, is used as a sponge in skin care. Dry gourd (Tamil: Surakkai) act as resonators in musical instruments such as sarod, sitar and tanpura.
, The article was written in collaboration with Sushil Chandani who works in molecular modelling. sushilchandani@gmail.com,