Melothria scabra is a vine grown for its edible fruit. Fruit are about the size of grapes and looking like a miniature watermelon and tasting like a cucumber infused with lemon. Vernacular names include mouse melon, Mexican sour gherkin, cucamelon, Mexican miniature watermelon, Mexican sour cucumber and pepquinos. It has been a staple of Mexican and Central American diets since pre-Columbian times, hence its great array of names in indigenous languages.
PLANT CHEMICALS
Chemical Composition.—
TRADITIONAL USES
Fruit’s health benefiting properties are because of their richness in vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, anti-oxidants, which helps the body prevent or at least prolong the natural changes of aging by protecting and rejuvenating cells, tissues and organs.
CURRENT PRACTICAL USES
It is commonly written that the cucumelon was used regularly among Aztec and ancient civilizations in non-culinary ways, including in medicine, yet little of this information can be found in mainstream literature.
PLANT