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)
