Squirting Cucumber, Ecballium elaterium

The wild, or squirting cucumber, sometimes called wild balsam-apple, is a trailing to slightly bushy

perennial with, palm-like, bristly leaves. Flowers are funnel-shaped, about 2.5 cm (1 in) across, and deep yellow. Male and female flowers are separate, though they both appear on the same plant.

Fruits are green, oblong and bristly, like small cucumbers, up to about 70mm (2 3/4 in), on the end of longs stalks. When ripe, they explode suddenly and violently at the point of attachment, squirting the seeds out in a mucilaginous liquid. Allegedly, the liquid around the seeds can cause skin irritation or inflammation, however I have been squirted upon several times, without having suffered any of the aforesaid symptoms. The exciting fruits are always an amusement to catch the uninitiated observer.

According to "Plants for a Future", the squirting cucumber has been used as a medicinal plant for over 2,000 years, though it has a very violent effect upon the body and has little use in modern herbalism. The juice of the fruit is antirheumatic, cardiac and purgative. The plant is a very powerful purgative that causes evacuation of water from the bowels.

It is used internally in the treatment of oedema associated with kidney complaints, heart problems, rheumatism, paralysis and shingles. Externally, it has been used to treat sinusitis and painful joints.

It should be used with great caution and only under the supervision of a qualified practitioner. Excessive doses have caused gastroenteritis and even death. It should not be used by pregnant women since it can cause an abortion. The fully grown but unripe fruits are harvested during the summer, they are left in containers until the contents are expelled and the juice is then dried for later use. The root contains an analgesic principle.

The squirting cucumber can be found on sandy and stony ground, stone walls, grassy places, waste and fallow land. It is very abundant on Mt. Pelion, between February and September. The plant shown here was photographed on the roadside, just outside Lafkos, a village in S. Pelion.

Type of plant
Short, spreading perennial

Flowering Season
February - September

Known Hazards
Poisonous in large quantities (this probably refers to the fruit). The juice of the fruit is irritative to some skins.

Known Uses
Used to induce abortions, relieve pain, treat rheumatism, heart and kidney problems and evacuate the bowels (laxative). "Plants for a Future" rate it 0 out of 5 for edibility and 2 out of 5 for medicinal uses (min. 0, max. 5)

Habitat
Sandy and stony ground, old walls, grassy places, waste and fallow land

Distribution
Throughout the Mediterranean region; naturalized in Britain at a few locations along the south coast

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae (Plants); Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (Vascular plants); Superdivision: Spermatophyta (Seed plants); Division Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants); Class: Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons); Subclass: Dilleniidae; Order: Violales; Family: Cucurbitaceae (Cucumber family); Genus: Ecballium; Species: elaterium

Acknowledgments

Information on the plant's edible and medicinal uses was obtained from "Plants for a Future".