Ivy League of its own

The finger-sized, cucumber-like vegetable kundru or ivy gourd is used in many forms in Indian cuisine. In Andhra Pradesh, where ivy gourd (Coccinia grandis) is known as dondakaya, it is used to prepare a spicy pickle; in Kerala, kovaykka is used to prepare the coconut-rich poriyal; and in Maharashtra, tendli is used to prepare a stir-fried side dish.

My interest in the vegetable was piqued when I tasted the fiery hot pickle or uragaya, as it is called in Telugu, at Saras Mela in Gurugram. The fair featured women entrepreneurs from across the country in November 2023. Sujini Adusumilli from Andhra Pradesh had put up a stall to showcase products such as fried snacks, spice mixtures and vegetarian and non-vegetarian pickles. The dondakaya pickle had sold well, her husband Sanath Kumar informed me, as he handed me the last bottle of some 600g of the pickle for Rs 300. They have a small factory in Vijayawada under the name Sri Sai Pickles and Home Foods, and deliver products to countries such as Canada and Australia too. Adusumilli uses traditional recipes passed on to her from her maternal grandmother.

The genus Coccinia has 25 species of which only Coccinia grandis is found outside tropical Africa. Coccinia comes from the Latin word coccineus, which means red. The fruits of this vine turn red as they mature. The climber occurs in the wild in countries such as Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and India. In Africa, the cucurbit grows naturally in grasslands and dry forests while in tropical Asia, it is found in dry deciduous forests and thickets on sand or in well-drained calcareous grounds.

Its fruit is a smooth, green, striped, ovoid to ellipsoid berry. The tender shoots of the plant are sometimes consumed as vegetable too. The fruit is nutritious and a good source of protein, calcium, fibre and vitamins B and A.

In traditional medicines, such as Ayurveda, the leaves of the plant are used to control blood sugar. The leaves are also used as a household remedy for various diseases, including biliary disorders, anorexia, cough, diabetic wounds and hepatic disorders.

The leaf extract helps in reducing insect bite itching and swelling. A study in Current Microbiology in 2017 shows that leaf extract can control the growth of the pathogen Leishmania donovani which causes human visceral leishmaniasis or Kala Azar. The leaf extract has been found useful in wound-healing and researchers have observed that the extract protects the human fibroblasts and keratinocytes from damage caused by hydrogen peroxide. The team suggest in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity in January 2017 that Coccinia leaf extract may be a potential herb for increasing the wound-healing process and can be used as an herbal ingredient in skincare products.

A review in the Journal of Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicine in 2016 shows that the fruit is useful to treat cancer, too. Cucurbitacin B found in the fruits can act as anti-proliferative agent for breast cancer cells. The best part of the vegetable is that it is easy to cultivate. The vines continue to fruit for four-five years and can be harvested in about 70 days after planting. In south and central India, fruiting is round the year, while in north India, fruiting terminates when the temperature comes down in November. Since it grows easily, this underexploited semi-perennial creeper is often termed as poor man’s vegetable. The growth is so profuse that the excess is sometimes fed to animals. Eastern India has a rich gene pool of the cucurbit where it is available in the wild as well as in homestead gardens. In tribal areas of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, the fruits of kundru are sometimes gathered from natural forests, too.

Farmers generally cultivate land races and very few commercial varieties are available. Systematic work on germplasm augmentation, evaluation and characterisation is being carried out at the Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Bhubaneswar, a regional research station of Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. The organisation has registered INGR 09126 as a unique germplasm with the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. The institute has also released two varieties—Arka Neelachal Khunkhi (which has extra-large fruit, soft texture, high yield and is suitable for salad) and Arka Neelachal Sabuja (which has high yield and is tolerant to bruising).

The kundru fruit has a slightly sour taste. The immature fruit can be added to salads to provide crispness. The young fruits taste better because the pulp becomes mucilaginous as it matures—generally, the smaller the fruit the better. Since the fruit become red as it matures, it is easy to pick out the young ones. I picked out the young fruits to recreate the dondakaya pickle recipe and relished it the same day with steaming hot rice.

If you want to avoid consuming the pickle, the fresh vegetable can be simply stir fried to prepare a side dish. Take a tablespoon of oil in a wok, add cumin seeds, asafoetida, turmeric, coriander powder, chilli and salt and add the cut vegetable to it and cook till the pieces are soft. This is how we usually consume vegetables at home. You can also add chopped onions and grated coconut to the vegetable to jazz up the dish.

This was first published in the 16-31 December, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.