Ku Hu Lu

Ku Hu Lu is the bitter-fruited form of Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. (Cucurbitaceae), the bottle gourd or calabash, an annual climbing vine cultivated throughout China and tropical/subtropical regions worldwide. Stems are long, soft-hairy, and bear branched tendrils. Leaves are alternate, broadly cordate-ovate, shallowly 5-lobed, 10–25 cm wide, with soft pubescence and small glands at the petiole apex. Plants are monoecious with solitary, large, white, nocturnal flowers opening at dusk. The fruit is a pepo of highly variable shape (bottle, dipper, club, or globose) 10–50 cm long; the wild and certain cultivar forms produce a sharply bitter fruit owing to cucurbitacin accumulation. Mature fruits have a hard, woody, pale-tan rind enclosing white spongy flesh and many flat, oblong seeds. Bitter-fruited gourds are used cautiously in TCM to promote urination and reduce edema; they are mildly toxic and contraindicated in deficiency patterns and in large doses.