Crazy cucumber is a plant of the pumpkin family, which is a climbing herbaceous tropical liana. It blooms with yellow fragrant flowers with a scent reminiscent of gardenia. After flowering, fruits are formed on the stems - round, slightly elongated, orange-red in color. At this time the plant is very attractive.

As the fruits ripen, they begin to crack and throw seeds far away (sometimes up to several meters). Therefore, this plant was given the name - squirting cucumber. The most popular variety This type of cucumber is called momordica; translated from Latin, this cucumber also “bites.” The fact is that when a mad cucumber grows, it stings like a nettle. But when the fruit appears, all the pungency disappears.

Blooms: July - August, ripens: August - September.

When and where to plant crazy cucumber?

To decorate the walls of a house, a gazebo or a fence with weaving stems, garden plot planting crazy cucumber photo. In addition to the decorative qualities of momordica has medicinal and healing qualities because its juice is poisonous. IN folk medicine The cucumber is popular, but it should be handled very carefully.

This plant is easily propagated by seeds, which germinate quite easily (like pumpkin or squash). Therefore some special attention he doesn’t need to pay it.

Application, treatment, beneficial properties

Preparations made from mad cucumber have strong diuretic and laxative, antitumor, and antibacterial properties.

A decoction of this plant used for diarrhea, inflammatory kidney disease, hemorrhoids, inflammation of the nasal mucosa.

Externally applied for trophic ulcers, for sinusitis, treatment of rheumatism, neuralgia, skin fungus.

Ecballium elaterium

Fruit tincture

You should collect the young fruits of the mad cucumber, wash them together with the skin (do not cut it off), cut into small pieces, and fill a three-liter jar with them loosely. Fill everything with half a liter of vodka or alcohol and put the jar in a dark place for two weeks. Strain the finished medicine.

Take the tincture of this plant three times a day, one teaspoon, on an empty stomach. Treatment should be carried out for no more than three days. This way you can treat colds, psoriasis, rheumatism (externally). The tincture works well to strengthen the immune system.

Decoction

The seeds are used for the decoction. Place approximately 25 g of seeds in a saucepan, pour in 200 ml of boiling water, and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. Then wrap the pan for one hour. Strain the finished broth and take half a glass three times a day. The decoction helps with hemorrhoids and is used as a diuretic.

Some recipes

For external use

For indoor use

• It should not be forgotten that mad cucumber juice is poisonous; even small doses can cause vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, and weakness. Decoctions from this plant are drunk for jaundice, malaria and for worms.
• Freshly squeezed juice can be used for sore throat, diphtheria, otitis media, migraine, and runny nose.
• For sore throat, the juice of the plant is mixed with honey and olive oil, and the resulting product is lubricated on the throat.

Contraindications

Crazy cucumber is a very poisonous plant and preparations made from it should be taken very carefully. Need to Monitor your well-being closely during treatment. Under no circumstances should you take these medications during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

When preparing juice from this plant at home should work with rubber gloves. Because if the juice gets on the skin, it can cause burns, blisters or ulcers.

Mad cucumber preparations should only be taken under strict medical supervision.

Use in cooking

Momordica fruits can be eaten; their taste resembles that of persimmons. For consumption, you should take young ten-day-old (still green) fruits. If you take more mature ones, then you cannot eat them because they are very bitter. Such fruits can be soaked in salted water for 12 hours. If after soaking they still taste bitter, you need to add salt water again and wait a little longer.

After the bitterness has gone, you need to remove the skin, and the pulp can be used for stewing or making salads. In addition, the fruits can be salted and pickled - just like ordinary cucumbers.

In addition to the fruits of this plant, tubers, leaves and fresh young stems are used for food. You can use them to make a light vegetable soup or add to salads.

Crazy cucumber: beneficial properties and uses

grassy annual plant mad cucumber is a weed that grows on the Black Sea coast, in Asia Minor, and other regions. It is poisonous and medicinal at the same time. Used in folk and official medicine.

Description

The plant belongs to the pumpkin family. Loves sandy soils and is often found on the coast. How garden culture not grown, considered nasty weed. The name of the weed comes from the spread of seeds.

Source: Depositphotos

A crazy cucumber stings like nettles until the fruit ripens.

When the fruit ripens, a pressure of 6 atmospheres is created inside, the cucumber is torn away from the shoot, and the seeds are shot out at a distance of 6-12 m around. This is how distribution happens seed material and plant propagation.

Botanical description:

• heat-loving annual;
• creeping stem 50-120 cm long with tendrils;
• leaves are hard, pubescent, bluish on the inside;
• yellow flowers;
• flowering time - July - September;
• fruits are oblong, 4-7 cm long, covered with bristles;
• ripen in August - September.

After ripening, the cucumber turns brown and shoots out elongated seeds in a slimy mass. The length of the seeds is 4 mm, similar to the seeds of a regular cucumber.

Eat cultivar an annual called Momordica. Used as curly ornamental plant for decorating the walls of a house, gazebo or other buildings.

Composition, medicinal properties

The herbaceous part - the stem and leaves - is used as a medicinal raw material. Collected in summer, during flowering. The raw materials are dried, crushed, used in medicinal purposes.

Biologically active substances found in the stems and leaves:

• steroids;
• organic acids;
• carotenoids;
• alkaloids;
• ascorbic acid;
• glycosides.

Cucumber has a laxative and diuretic effect on the human body. It has antitumor, antibacterial, anthelmintic properties. Decoctions and infusions of dried raw materials are used to treat jaundice, gout, and rheumatism.

Diluted juice from fresh leaves is used to instill the nose for inflammation of the paranasal sinuses and sinusitis. The plant is used to prevent cancer of the female genital organs and treat uterine cancer. Effective for edema, kidney diseases, neuralgia, hemorrhoids.

The juice contains a high concentration of substances toxic to humans. Therefore, when preparing medicines strictly follow the instructions and, when used, the dosage. Contraindicated for stomach diseases, pancreatitis, pregnancy, diarrhea.

The crazy cucumber plant (Ecballium elatherum in Latin) is actually neither. It received the name “cucumber” due to some external similarity with the vegetable we all know. The epithet “mad” was given to it because of the way its seeds spread. By the way, in some countries it is called not a mad cucumber, but a wild or donkey cucumber. And although this plant is completely unsuitable for food, people use it very actively.

Appearance

The genus Crazy cucumber belongs to This plant is the only one of its kind; there are no other species. You can find it in Asia, the Mediterranean, southern Russia, Crimea, the Caucasus, even in this region. This cucumber can be annual or perennial. Its stem represents a vine crawling along the ground or climbing onto supports. She has no mustache. Outwardly, our favorite vegetable and the crazy cucumber have a certain similarity. The photo clearly demonstrates. Its leaves are as wide and rough as those of an edible cucumber, its flowers are yellow, corolla-shaped. But the fruits resemble a real cucumber only vaguely. They are ovoid or oblong, up to 6 cm long, densely covered with bristles, and very juicy at the beginning of maturity. The seeds are small, only 4 mm or less, slightly elongated, flat. In nature, this plant can be found on garbage heaps, landfills, and along roadsides.

Why "mad"

Each plant, in order to exist successfully, “invented” its own way of spreading in nature. The seeds of some are decorated with thorns, with which they cling to the fur of animals, and thus move to a new place of residence. Others are dispersed by the wind, others use birds, providing them with juicy fruits. Very original way has a crazy cucumber. It distributes seeds by shooting them over a distance of over 6 meters. That's why they gave it such a wonderful name. The plant blooms from July to September. The fruits begin to ripen in August. They turn yellow, the peduncle dries out, and the flesh becomes slimy. At this time, quite a lot is formed inside the fruit. high pressure. If you accidentally touch a cucumber, it falls off the stalk and instantly shoots mucus and seeds. If the fruits are not touched, they themselves fall off the shrunken stalk as they ripen, and the seeds, under great pressure, rush out into the resulting hole, away from the parent bush.

What's the use of it

The mad cucumber is very poisonous. Neither the fruits nor any other parts of the plant should be eaten. Its flowers have no scent and are not honey-bearing. Nevertheless, it was widely used even in the time of Avicenna. The roots, stems and fruits of the plant contain many steroids, alkaloids, vitamin C, carotenoids and other valuable substances. Thanks to them, preparations from mad cucumber are used in official and folk medicine to treat many diseases. It is used externally for lichen, tumors, fungal diseases, non-healing ulcers, gout, hemorrhoids. Decoctions are prescribed internally for those suffering from migraines, constipation, rheumatism, intestinal colic, cancer patients, people with hepatitis, and diphtheria.

For medicinal purposes, the leaves and stems are harvested when the plant begins to bloom. The raw materials are dried in places where there is no direct sunlight and crushed. The roots are dug up in the fall, washed and also dried. First in the air, and then in ovens. You can store finished raw materials for a year.

Some recipes for external use

• Lichen

Grind the dried parts of the plant into powder and sprinkle it on the sore spot.

• Fungus

Prepare a foot bath. Take 200 grams of a fresh plant, pour 3 liters of boiling water and leave. You can add a spoonful of honey to the infusion. To prevent fungal diseases, use this infusion to wipe the inside of shoes. There is an opinion that the infusion of mad cucumber gets rid of not only fungus on the skin, but also on the walls.

• Gout

Squeeze and mix with vinegar. Soak a cloth in the solution and apply to the sore spot.

• Trophic ulcers

Crazy cucumber has been successfully used in the treatment of difficult-to-heal wounds. To do this, you need to prepare a decoction at the rate of: a tablespoon of dried and crushed raw materials per glass of boiling water. Heat in a water bath for 15-20 minutes. Immediately strain and add water to make one glass of liquid again. For treatment, take a teaspoon of flour and a tablespoon of broth, prepare a flat cake from it and apply it to the ulcer.

• Haemorrhoids

Boil the cucumber fruit in sesame oil. Apply the resulting product to lubricate hemorrhoidal cones.

Internal use

You need to understand well that the mad cucumber is very poisonous. Even relatively small doses of it cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, weakness, and lead to breathing problems and heart problems. It should not be used internally by pregnant women and children.

Decoctions of this plant are drunk for jaundice, malaria, and for worms.

The juice from the fruit has a stronger effect than the juice from other parts of the plant. The medicinal properties of the roots and the above-ground parts are approximately equivalent.

Freshly squeezed mad cucumber juice is used for sore throats, diphtheria, otitis media, migraines, and runny nose.

• To get rid of migraines, it is diluted with milk and dropped into the nose.
• For a runny nose, you can instill juice diluted with water in a ratio of 1:4, or you can lubricate your nostrils with it.
• Ear pain is relieved by instilling juice into the ears.
• For sore throat, the juice is diluted with honey and olive oil. Lubricate the throat with the resulting product.

Prickly carp, or Echinocystis

Out of ignorance, many people call the mad cucumber echinocystis, or, popularly, prickly carp, bladderwort, shooting ivy. Indeed, these two plants are similar in appearance, especially in fruits. Echinocystis came to us from North America. Now it can be found in Europe and Asia, including Russia, and in the Mediterranean. The spread of crazy cucumber and Echinocystis became so widespread due to their ability to shoot seeds.

There are many differences between these two plants. Thus, Echinocystis flowers smell pleasant and attract bees. Lianas have tendrils, with the help of which they crawl up the support. The leaves are smoother than those of the mad cucumber. The flowers do not look like pumpkin flowers and are panicles. The seeds are large, reaching one and a half centimeters. The fruits of Echinocystis are edible. They contain many vitamins and mineral salts. Only people use this plant not for food, but to create a fragrant and beautiful hedge; they decorate gazebos and arches with it. The medicinal properties of Echinocystis have not yet been studied.

Anguria

Very rarely, Anguria, which has similar fruits, is called a mad cucumber. This plant has nothing to do with either the mad cucumber or the echinocystis. It is very decorative, often grown to decorate not only verandas in private houses, but also balconies in high-rise buildings. Its fruits, which are indeed somewhat similar to the fruits of a wild cucumber, have a pleasant taste and are used like ordinary vegetables. They do not shoot seeds. Some people, seeing spherical green sausages strewn with thorns on the vines, think that this is a mad cucumber, although this is where their similarity ends. So, Anguria leaves are more similar to grape or watermelon than to cucumber. The stalk is longer and the fruits are somewhat larger.

Growing

If you wish, you can plant a medicinal mad cucumber in your garden plot. It is better to plant seeds in the fall so that they spend the winter in the cold. It is advisable that a place be determined in advance for them. If not, you can plant the seeds somewhere aside and transplant them in the spring as seedlings. For spring planting The seeds must be kept in the refrigerator for two to three months. There is no need to make holes or grooves in the ground; the seeds are placed on top of the soil, watered and left alone.

You need to collect the seeds very carefully, since the ripe fruits are just waiting for someone to touch them and throw out a fountain of mucus at a speed of 10 meters per second. To “outwit” the plant, you need to carefully, without touching the vine, place the fruit in a plastic bag and shake it. Afterwards, rinse the mucus and dry the seeds.

Every time I vacation in the south, I try to borrow some kind of unusual plant. For example, the year before last I brought from Crimea vine seeds with green oval “hedgehog” fruits (up to 6 cm in size), which “explode” when ripe.

RADIC CUCUMBER IS A LINA WITH SPINES

Already at home I learned that the plant is called common cucumber, or thorny cucumber. Belongs to the pumpkin family. Distributed in Central and Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine.

This annual liana is very unpretentious, and therefore is often found in the wild. Its stems reach a length of 1.5 m. The leaves are large, up to 20 cm long and up to IS cm wide. The flowers are quite pretty, yellowish, fragrant. In gardening, prickly carp is used for landscaping terraces, gazebos, arches, fences, walls, and balconies.

FRIEND ZUCCHE

As I have seen, the crazy cucumber grows well in Middle lane Russia. Agricultural technology is the same as for zucchini and pumpkins.

Before planting, rub the vine seeds on sandpaper to make it easier for the sprouts to break through the hard shell. And then soak them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for a day and place them in a bowl with wet sawdust. Cover with a bag. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for a month. Then move it to a warm place (not lower than 25). When the roots appear, plant the seeds in pots with a substrate of humus, leaf soil, peat and sand (2: 2: 1: 1). You can try to sow the seeds directly into the ground, but only when stable warmth has established.

Transplanting a crazy cucumber into open ground

At the end of May - beginning of June, plant the seedlings in open ground at intervals of 35-50 cm. Pour half a shovelful of humus into each planting hole.

The liana grows in both sun and partial shade. If only there were no drafts. The soils preferred for it are slightly acidic sandy loam or light clayey, well-drained. Moderate watering is needed. Fertilizer - twice a month with a solution of mullein or bird droppings (a shovel per bucket of water).

Flowers on the plant form from July until autumn frosts. The fruits ripen in late August - early September. But I cut them off earlier, leaving only a couple of testes. After all, with uncontrolled “explosions” of mad cucumbers, their seeds scatter to the sides at a distance of up to 20 m! Then dig up seedlings throughout the garden!

BEFORE THE “EXPLOSION” OR AFTER?

I collect mad cucumber seeds with all precautions. When the stalks of the testes turn yellow, I put on glasses to protect my eyes, take a cucumber and carefully place it inside plastic bag. Then I shake the fruit sharply, it spews out a jelly-like mass with seeds into the bag. This mass, due to fermentation with the release of gas, causes high blood pressure inside the fetal shell, leading to an “explosion”.

Having completed the operation, all that remains is to select the seeds from the bag in a strainer, rinse them under running tap water and dry them on a napkin.

You can also collect the seeds after the natural explosion of the fruit. This is easier, but some of the seeds may scatter in an unknown direction.

HEALING PROPERTIES OF RAD CUCUMBER

Crazy cucumber is widely used in folk medicine to treat the liver, kidneys, colds, trophic ulcers, and neuralgia. Fruits, leaves, and shoots are used. However, it must be remembered that the mad cucumber is poisonous plant. You cannot taste any part of it! Even the juice from the stems and leaves of the vine, if it gets on the skin, can cause irritation, burns, and ulcers.

You need to be treated with homemade preparations made from crazy cucumber under the supervision of a doctor, since an overdose can cause increased heart rate, dizziness, abdominal pain, and vomiting. This treatment is contraindicated in case of exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, during pregnancy, breastfeeding and children under 18 years of age.

Crazy cucumber is an annual or perennial Mediterranean crop that belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. A special feature of the plant is the ability of its fruits to shoot seeds over long distances. This is where the name “mad” comes from.

The plant is also called Indian cucumber. It has medicinal properties. The product is used in cooking, as well as for decorative purposes to decorate gazebos, fences, and arches.

Description

The only species of the genus Squirting cucumber- This is a common crazy cucumber. One of its subspecies, and sometimes the crazy cucumber itself, is called Momordica, bitter gourd, balsam pear. Translated from Latin, the name indicates that the vegetable is “biting.” This is due to the fact that during growth the wild plant stings, just like nettles. But as soon as the fruit itself appears, the prickliness goes away.

The root system has the form of a rod. The stems are thick, creep to the ground, and actively branch. The leaves are arranged alternately, have an ovoid-heart shape and jagged edges. They can also be a little lobed. The color of the plate is green on top, and the underside is felt-grayish. It is wrinkled and rough to the touch.

The fruits usually ripen from late summer to mid-autumn. They have a bluish-green color. They look like an elongated pumpkin. Dimensions: 4-8 cm. The outer side is covered with prickly bristles. The inside of the fruit is very juicy. Outwardly, it looks a little like a thickened cucumber, which is where the name of the plant comes from. When the fruit is fully ripe, an explosion occurs even from a breath of wind or a light touch. The pumpkin breaks away from the stem and the seeds fly out. The pressure inside a ripe cucumber is 5 atmospheres. Because of this, the seeds fly off at a speed of 10 meters per second over a distance of up to 12 meters. They have a dark brownish tint and a smooth surface. The seeds are usually no more than 0.4 cm in length.

Despite the fact that the mad cucumber is considered poisonous, it is used in medicine. For medicinal purposes, it is necessary to harvest unripe fruits. They are used fresh by squeezing the juice. They can also be dried at a temperature of 450 C. The fruits must be kept separate from other products due to the toxicity of the mad cucumber. Sometimes shoots, leaves and roots are used for medicinal purposes. They need to be dried outside under a canopy or in a well-ventilated room. Then store in closed containers for no more than a year.

Useful properties and contraindications

Until now, the full composition of the fruits, roots and above-ground parts of the plant has not been studied. It is known that it contains curbitacins, steroids, alkaloids, elatherins, B vitamins, ascorbic acid, allantoin, proteins, carotenoids, fatty acids, organic acids. This is precisely the reason for the health benefits of this crop.

Thanks to beneficial properties ground part, the mad cucumber has a number of effects on the human body:

• destroys helminths and removes them from the body;;
• fights various types of bacteria;
• has a diuretic effect;
• prevents or suppresses the development of tumors, including cancer;
• has a pronounced laxative effect.

Crazy cucumber helps the human body and its individual systems cope with diseases such as:

• inflammatory processes in the liver;
• hepatitis;
• swelling, dropsy;
• neuralgia;
• sciatica;
• rheumatism;
• gout;
• inflammatory processes in the urinary organs;
• colic in the intestines;
• intermittent fever.

The plant is used by women in the treatment of malignant tumors in the uterus. Crazy cucumber also helps regulate the menstrual cycle if it has problems.

Externally, products based on such a plant are recommended for use in the development of fungal infections, abscesses, and trophic-type ulcers on the skin. The use of crazy cucumber helps with sinusitis, inflammatory processes in the mucous layers, and nasal sinuses. Products based on it are effective for hemorrhoids.

But you need to use crazy cucumber very carefully, as the plant is considered poisonous. You should first consult a doctor so as not to harm your own body. Contraindications include:

• pancreatitis;
• heart disease;
• stomach diseases;
• periodic loose stools.

The culture should not be used during pregnancy and lactation.

Chemical substances that are part of the seeds and fruits of the mad cucumber can cause an acute form of intoxication of the body, including death. It is known that consuming just 0.5 g of fresh fruit juice leads to death if ingested. In case of an overdose of drugs based on crazy cucumber, the patient begins to suffer from nausea, bouts of vomiting, stabbing pain in the abdomen, and rapid heart rate.

Use in cooking and folk medicine

In folk medicine, decoctions, infusions, powders are prepared from various parts of such a culture, and juice is squeezed out.

Popular recipes:

1. 1. Decoction for the treatment of skin diseases. You need 1 tbsp. l. Pour dried herbs into an enamel container and pour 1 liter of boiling water. Then process the product in a water bath for 25 minutes and wait until the mixture cools. Then strain it and add more water to the liquid until the original volume is obtained. This product should be used to wipe the affected areas of the skin. You can also soak a bandage in it and wrap it around the wound. If the patient’s trophic ulcer does not heal, then it is necessary to make a cake from 1 tsp. flour and 1 tbsp. l. the resulting decoction. Then attach it to the ulcer and secure it with a bandage.
2. 2. Medicine for sinusitis. IN in this case you must use cucumber juice. Only fresh liquid is suitable. You will need to mix 2 drops of juice and 8 drops of cooled boiled water. This remedy must be instilled into each nostril, 3-4 drops. The next procedure can be carried out only after 3 days. When obtaining fresh juice, your hands should be protected with gloves so as not to cause irritation to the skin.
3. 3. Deworming remedy. You need 1 tsp. dried herbs pour 200 ml of boiling water. The container with the liquid must be wrapped and left for 50 minutes. Then strain. You need to drink the drink 3 times a day, half an hour before meals, 5 ml. This helps not only to get rid of worms, but also removes swelling that is caused by any factors. The remedy also acts as a mild laxative.
4. 4. Medicine for sciatica, neuralgia and rheumatism. One part of the fruits (both fresh and dried) should be poured with 20 parts of vodka. The product should be infused for 2 weeks. Then it is filtered and used externally for rubbing.

The common cucumber is not eaten because of its dangerous poisonous properties.