Chinese Lard Seed (Hodgsonia heteroclita) - Sikkim Flora

Scientific classification

Kingdom:       Plantae

Order:             Cucurbitales

Family:            Cucurbitaceae

Subfamily:      Cucurbitoideae

Tribe:              Sicyoeae

Genus:            Hodgsonia

Species:           H. Heteroclite

Binomial name: H. Heteroclite, Hook.f. & Thomson 1853

Other Names:  Chinese Lard Seed 

Special feature: Hodgsonia is a small genus of fruit-bearing vines in the family Cucurbitaceae.

Hodgsonia was named for Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1853 by British botanists Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Thomson, who examined the plant under Hodgson's hospitality in the Himalaya.

Although the flesh of Hodgsonia fruit is inedible and considered worthless, the large, oil-rich seeds are an important source of food.

The medicinal importance of Hodgsonia is mostly in its leaves. In Malaya and java, native physicians report several uses for the nose. The leaves may be dried and burnt, and the smoke inhaled, or the juice of young stems and leaves is squeezed into the nostrils to allay irritation from small insects. The leaves are also boiled and the resulting liquid taken internally, both for nose complaints and to reduce fevers.

In Nagaland, the fruit bulb is applied to bacterial infections in the feet. In Sarawak, Hodgsonia oil is used to anoint the bodies of mothers after childbirth; it also forms the base of embrocations carrying ashes from the leaves of coconut palm and Kaempferia. The oil is also used as a base for medicines in Eastern India. (Source : Wikipedia)