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Citrullus colocynthis
Cucurbitaceae FAMILY

Citrullus colocynthis

Citrullus colocynthis

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The plant contains a number of potentially toxic compounds and can be harmful if used in quantity. These compounds include elatermidine, glycosides, resin, dihydric alcohol, heltiacontane, citrullin and citrullinic acid. Taken in excess they can cause gastrointestinal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, hypothermia, cardiac disorders, cerebral congestion and necrosis of liver and renal cells[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial Climber
Growth—

A plant found mainly in the drier areas the tropics and subtropics, though it can tolerate high levels of rainfall when cultivated. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 23 - 32°c, but can tolerate 14 - 40°c[2]. Mature growth can be killed by temperatures of -5°c or lower, but young growth is severely damaged at 0°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 300 - 500mm, but tolerates 250 - 4,300mm[2]. Prefers a well-drained, light soil and a position in full sun[3]. Plants are very drought hardy[4, 2]. Prefers a pH in the range 4.5 - 7.5, tolerating 4 - 8[2]. Productivity is enhanced during dry, sunny periods and reduced during periods of excessive rainfall and high humidity[2].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Citrullus+colocynthis>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Toxic effect of some medicinal plants used in Moroccan traditional medicine — Mohamed Bnouham; Fatima Zahra Merhfour; Mostafa Elachoui; Ab · 2006 ↩︎
  2. [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  3. [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  4. [4]Cucurbitaceae — http://www.cucurbit.org ↩︎An excellent site with a wide range of information and some excellent pictures of plants in this family.
  5. [5]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  6. [6]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  7. [7]Oil Yielding Plants — Botanical Survey of India. · 2004 · http://mnes.nic.in/list/oil-plants.pdf ↩︎A PDF downloaded from the Internet. Very terse details about the applications of oil obtained from over 300 species of plants.
  8. [8]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.