Traditionally used for
- Cough & breathing
- Digestion
- Urinary & fluids
Cautions & contraindications
- Toxic — professional use only
☯ TCM Properties
Promotes and regulates urination
Traditional Chinese Uses
Hu Lu Ke is the dried rind of the mature bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, a sweet and bland, neutral substance used to promote and regulate urination and drain water. It is applied for edema, especially facial and generalized swelling, ascites and abdominal distension, and for difficult or scanty urination. Its bland, seeping quality makes it a gentle diuretic that leaches Dampness without harsh action, and it may be combined with other water-draining herbs such as Dong Gua Pi or Fu Ling.
The record assigns the Spleen, Lung and Kidney channels (some sources cite Heart and Small Intestine); across sources its core role is consistent — resolving water swelling through urination. It is generally mild and food-safe, decocted in modest amounts.
Western Herbalism Properties
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. (Cucurbitaceae), the bottle gourd or calabash, is the source of Hu Lu Ke, the dried outer rind of the mature fruit. The plant is a vigorous annual climbing or trailing vine extending 3-9 m, with soft-hairy angular stems and branched tendrils. Leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to reniform, 10-25 cm wide, shallowly 3-7 lobed, with dentate margins, an obtuse to cordate base, and a softly pubescent surface. Flowers are large, solitary, monoecious, with five white, broadly obovate corolla lobes 3-5 cm long that open in the evening and wilt by morning. The fruit is highly variable in shape — bottle, dipper, club, or globose — 10-100 cm long, with a smooth green rind ripening to a hard, lightweight, woody, pale yellow-brown pericarp; mature seeds are flattened and obconical. Cultivated worldwide and one of humanity's oldest domesticated plants. In TCM, the dried rind (Hu Lu Ke) and the entire dried fruit promote urination, reduce edema, and treat jaundice and ascites.
Active Constituents
Cucurbitacins B, D, G and H, and 22-deoxycucurbitacin
Tetracyclic triterpenoidsConcentration: Usually below about 130 ppm in edible non-bitter fruit; concentrations rise steeply in bitter fruit, which is the entire basis of the poisoning risk
These are the compounds responsible both for the bitterness and for the toxicity of the fruit. Bitterness is under simple genetic control and is intensified by cross-pollination with wild or ornamental gourds, drought and other stress, so a bitter fruit can appear unpredictably in an otherwise safe crop. At poisoning doses they produce severe gastrointestinal mucosal injury: rapid onset vomiting, diarrhoea, haematemesis, oesophagitis, gastric erosion and ulceration, duodenitis and hypotension. There is no antidote. The practical rule is unambiguous: if the fruit or the juice tastes bitter, spit it out and discard the whole fruit. Do not dilute it, sweeten it or persevere with it.
Fucosterol
PhytosterolConcentration: Reported constituent of the fruit
One of two sterols consistently reported from the fruit. Phytosterols contribute to the mild lipid-modifying effects claimed for bottle gourd as a food.
Campesterol
PhytosterolConcentration: Reported constituent of the fruit
A common dietary phytosterol reported alongside fucosterol in the fruit.
Flavone C-glycosides
Flavone C-glycosidesConcentration: Reported from the fruit; individual compounds not consistently quantified
C-linked flavone glycosides are the characteristic flavonoid class of the fruit and are resistant to acid hydrolysis, so they survive cooking and gastric passage. They contribute to the antioxidant activity measured in fruit extracts.
Isoquercitrin
Flavonol glycoside (quercetin 3-O-glucoside)Concentration: Reported constituent of the fruit
An antioxidant flavonol glucoside of the fruit, of nutritional rather than therapeutic significance at dietary intake.
Kaempferol
Flavonol aglyconeConcentration: Reported constituent of the fruit
A dietary flavonol contributing to the antioxidant capacity of the fruit.
Saponins
Triterpenoid and steroidal saponinsConcentration: A general constituent class of the fruit and rind
Contribute to the mild diuretic reputation of the drug and to the foaming and mucosal irritancy of concentrated preparations.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Bitter-tasting bottle gourd fruit or juice from any source
This is not a drug interaction in the pharmacological sense but the dominant clinical hazard of the herb and belongs on the same page. An expert committee convened by the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2010 reviewed poisonings from bottle gourd juice: three people died, all over 59 and all with about 20 years of diabetes, and 26 more were admitted to hospital after drinking freshly prepared juice. Diarrhoea occurred in 69.2 percent and haematemesis in 73.1 percent, more than half were hypotensive, liver enzymes were raised, and endoscopy showed profusely bleeding, extensively ulcerated stomachs. Independent case series in India and the United States describe the same picture, with onset from five minutes to six hours after ingestion, from cooked fruit as well as raw juice. The cause is cucurbitacin content in bitter fruit, and there is no antidote; management is supportive only.
Clinical note: Tell every patient given this herb, and every patient who juices bottle gourd for health reasons, to taste a small piece first and to discard the entire fruit if it is bitter at all. Never mix bottle gourd juice with other juices, which masks the warning taste. Elderly and diabetic patients appear over-represented among the fatal cases. Anyone who vomits blood or collapses after bottle gourd needs emergency care, not reassurance.
Antihypertensives and diuretics
The drug is used to promote and regulate urination, and the fruit pulp is described as diuretic and laxative. No human pharmacokinetic or blood pressure study of the herb with antihypertensives exists, so additive effects in ordinary use are an extrapolation. The concrete concern is different and larger: hypotension was recorded in more than half the patients in the bitter-fruit poisoning series, so a patient already on an antihypertensive or diuretic who happens to eat a bitter fruit starts from a worse position.
Clinical note: No routine change is needed for the ordinary non-bitter fruit. Reinforce the bitterness rule particularly firmly with patients on antihypertensives, diuretics or insulin.
NSAIDs, corticosteroids and anticoagulants in patients using bottle gourd juice
Cucurbitacin poisoning from bitter bottle gourd produces oesophagitis, gastric erosions, ulceration and duodenitis with frank haemorrhage. Drugs that independently damage gastric mucosa or impair haemostasis would be expected to worsen the bleeding, though no series has specifically analysed co-medication. This is a conditional interaction: it applies to the poisoning scenario, not to normal consumption of sweet fruit.
Clinical note: Patients on chronic NSAIDs, steroids or anticoagulants who report the raw juice habit should be told the bitterness rule explicitly and warned to seek urgent care for any vomiting of blood.
Evidence Tier
Moderate evidence · 4 studiesRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
0
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
4
3 verified · 1 unverified
Show 4 studies
In vitro / animal
0
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Assessment of effects on health due to consumption of bitter bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) juice
Report of the Indian Council of Medical Research expert committee convened in October 2010. Three deaths followed consumption of extremely bitter bottle gourd juice, all in people over 59 with about 20 years of diabetes; 26 further people were hospitalised, with diarrhoea in 69.2 percent and haematemesis in 73.1 percent, raised liver enzymes, hypotension in over half, and endoscopy showing profuse gastric bleeding with extensive ulceration. Cucurbitacins were identified as the cause and the committee stated that there is no known antidote and treatment is symptomatic. This is the authoritative source for the bitterness rule.
Gastrointestinal toxicity due to bitter bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)–a report of 15 cases
Fifteen patients presented with abdominal pain, vomiting, haematemesis, diarrhoea and hypotension between 15 minutes and six hours after drinking bottle gourd juice. Endoscopy showed oesophagitis, gastric erosions, ulcers and duodenitis. Establishes the time course and the endoscopic signature of the poisoning.
Bitter Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) Toxicity
Five adults developed nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea within 5 to 25 minutes of eating cooked bitter bottle gourd; one needed admission and all recovered within days on intravenous fluids and proton pump inhibitors. Reported as the first such cluster in the United States. Important because the fruit was cooked, showing that cooking does not destroy the cucurbitacins.
Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) juice poisoning
A 52-year-old woman presented with haematemesis and shock after drinking bottle gourd juice, required intensive care and endoscopy, and was discharged after four days. The authors restate that no antidote exists and that treatment is symptomatic.
Historical Texts
Ben Cao Jing Ji Zhu
Six Dynasties, compiled by Tao Hongjing around 500 CEBen Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynasty (completed 1578, printed 1596)References
- Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Sajjad Khan, Kinza Amir, Jannat Bi Bi, Muhammad Asif, Asadullah Madni, Asghar Ali Kamboh, Zahid Manzoor, Umair Younas, Sun Chao. Lagenaria siceraria fruit: A review of its phytochemistry, pharmacology, and promising traditional uses . Frontiers in Nutrition (2022) [DOI]
- Muhammad Zahoor, Muhammad Ikram, Nausheen Nazir, Sumaira Naz, Gaber El-Saber Batiha, Abdul Waheed Kamran, Michał Tomczyk, Ahmed Kabrah. A Comprehensive Review on the Medicinal Importance; Biological and Therapeutic Efficacy of Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) (Bottle Gourd) Standley Fruit . Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry (2021) [DOI]
- Joydeb Chanda, Pulok K. Mukherjee, Rajarshi Biswas, Seha Singha, Amit Kar, Pallab Kanti Haldar. Lagenaria siceraria and it's bioactive constituents in carbonic anhydrase inhibition: A bioactivity guided LC-MS/MS approach . Phytochemical Analysis (2021) [DOI]
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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