Mature ash gourd fruits are used in making sweet candy in India. Luffa, bottle gourd, ash gourd, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, and Indian squash are cooked, and some are fried for the preparation of various dishes. Pumpkin and squash fruits are cooked with other vegetables or used in pie-making. In Russia, beer is produced from watermelon juice. Muskmelon and watermelon are used fresh as dessert fruits, alone or in combination with other fruits in salads. Immature fruits, also called gherkins, are pickled in various ways. The cucumber is mostly used as a salad crop. Scientists have isolated a hypoglycemic phytoceutical, cheratin, in the fruit, which causes a lowering of blood sugars.

Owing to its bitter principle, the bitter gourd is used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine in India. Some of the species of Cucumis, Luffa, Coccinia, and Momordica exhibit varying degrees of bitterness in the fruits, leaves, and twigs, caused by terpenes called momordicins. There are a few exceptions like the bitter gourd, which is rich in vitamin C, the squash, pointed gourd, and muskmelon, which contain large amounts of carotene (provitamin A), the kakrol, which is high in protein, and the pointed gourd, which is rich in calcium. ( See MELONS, SQUASHES, AND GOURDS.)Ĭucurbits, in general, are not rich in calories, minerals, or vitamins. cochinchinensis), muskmelon or cantaloupe ( Cucumis melo), pumpkin ( Cucurbita moschata), summer squash ( Cucurbita pepo), winter squash ( Cucurbita maxima), ridge gourd ( Luffa acutangula), sponge gourd ( Luffa cylindrica), snake gourd ( Trichosanthes cucumerina), pointed gourd ( Trichosanthes dioica), watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus), and wax or ash gourd ( Benincasa hispida). Chakrabarti, in Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition (Second Edition), 2003 CucurbitsĬucurbits constitute the largest group of tropical vegetables, consisting of the bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia), bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria), cho cho or chayote ( Sechium edule), cucumber ( Cucumis sativus), Indian squash ( Praecitrullus fistulosus), ivy gourd ( Coccinia indica), kakrol ( Momordica dioica and M. Biochemical, physiological and molecular features of plant serine proteases have been summarized in detail by Antao & Malcata. Plant sequences homologous to cucumisin are present in species of plants from other families: Lilium longifolium, Alnus glutinosa, Lycopersicon esculentum, Aleurites fordii, Gossypioides kirkii, Pleioblastus hindsii, Euphorbia supina, Euphorbia pseudochamaesyce, Glycine max, Arabidopsis thaliana, Hordeum vulgare, Oryza saliva, Phaseolus Vulgaris, Cucumis trigonus Roxburghi and Morus indica cv. Cucumisin-like proteases have been purified from other cucurbitaceous plants, including white gourd, snake gourd, fig-leaf gourd, yellow snake gourd, honeydew melon, Trichosanthes bracteata, Benincasa hispida var. Makoto KanedaRetired, in Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes (Third Edition), 2013 Name and HistoryĬucumisin is the first plant serine protease isolated from the sarcocarp of melon fruit, Cucumis melo L. Various LAB have been isolated from the fermenting product. Young tea leaves are collected, steamed, wrapped tightly in individual bundles, packed into containers, pressed tightly, and weighted down, covered with banana leaves and plastic sheets, and fermented for 3–4 months. Miang, found in the northern part of Thailand, is produced from the fermentation of tea leaves seasoned with trace amounts of salt (0.1–1.5%, w/w). Similar products are awabancha and ishizuchikurocha produced in Japan. Fresh tea leaves are steamed, partially decomposed by mold ( Aspergillus spp.), fermented for a few weeks in wooden jars, and dried. Goishicha consists of fermented tea leaves produced in the Kochi Prefecture of Japan. LAB have been isolated from stinky tofu but in small numbers. The pH of the fermented brine usually ranges from 7 to 9. The brine contains several protein-hydrolyzing and ammonia-producing aerobes. The tofu is soaked in the brine for a few hours to one day.

Stinky tofu, consumed in China and Taiwan, is tofu (soybean curd) soaked in smelly brine prepared from naturally fermented and decomposed vegetables such as bamboo shoots and wax gourd.

Tanasupawat, in Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology (Second Edition), 2014 Other Fermented Food Stinky Tofu

Figleaf gourd candy