ABSTRACT
Cucurbits belong to the family Cucurbitaceae. Jeffrey (1990) suggested that it consists of about 118 genera and 825 species. Cucurbits are cultivated throughout the world and are among the most important plant families that supply human with edible products and useful bers. Cucurbits, which include cucumbers, muskmelons, watermelons, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, and gourds, are some of the most popular garden vegetables planted today. Cucurbit crops are similar in their appearance and requirements for growth. They are prostrate, sprawling vines, usually with tendrils. Each vine bears many large, lobed leaves. For all cucurbits, except the bottle gourd, the owers are bright yellow. Each vine bears two kinds of owers: pistillate (female) and staminate (male). Although cultivated cucurbits are very similar in aboveground development and root habit, they are extremely diverse in fruit characteristics. Fruits of cucurbits can be eaten raw when immature as in summer squash or mature as in the case of watermelon. The fruits of some of the cucurbits are consumed after being baked (squash), pickled (cucumber), and candied (watermelon). Some of the cucurbits are consumed fresh in salads (cucumber) or as dessert (melon). Cucurbits are also produced for other uses than food. In certain cucurbits like bottle gourd, fruits are used for storage, drinking containers, bottles, utensils, smoking pipes, musical instruments, gourd craft decoration, masks, oats for sh net, and other items. The ber of a mature loofah fruit can be used as a sponge for personal hygiene, household cleaning, and various other purposes, including ltration. Seeds or fruit parts of some cucurbits are reported to possess purgative, emetic, and antihelminthic properties due to the secondary metabolite cucurbitacin content (Robinson and Decker-Walters, 1997). Chambliss and Jones (1966a) suggested that fruits and roots with high cucurbitacin content can be used as an insect attractant (e.g., cucumber beetle, Diabrotica ssp.) or as an insect repellent (e.g., honeybee, Apis mellifera L., and yellow jacket wasp, Vespula sp.), while Bar-Nun and Mayer (1990) revealed that ectopic application of cucurbitacin can function as a protectant against infection by Botrytis cinerea. Therefore, cucurbits are among the largest and the most diverse plant families, have a large range of fruit characteristics, and are cultivated worldwide in a variety of environmental conditions. Cucurbits are associated with the origin of agriculture and human civilizations and are also among the rst plant species to be domesticated in both the Old and the New World. Ralf Norrman and Jon Haarberg (1980) examined the symbolic place of cucurbits in Western literature and culture and further extended their analysis to selected non-Western cultural settings. They noted that cucurbits have complex semiotic associations with sex and sexuality, fertility, vitality, moisture, creative power, rapid growth, and sudden death. Cucurbits also gure prominently in the symbolism and cosmologies of many non-Western societies (Table 29.1).
