Do you want to eat healthier but don’t know where to start? One of the best ways to start is to incorporate bottle gourd into your diet. Not only is it low in calories, it is also packed with nutrients such as Vitamin C, Vitamin K, magnesium, and potassium. It is also high in dietary fiber and can help to improve digestion and promote regularity. It is also a great source of antioxidants which can help to protect your cells from damage and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. This vegetable can be cooked in a variety of different ways, making it a versatile ingredient in any kitchen. From soups to salads, and even desserts, this nutritious vegetable can be used to create delicious and healthy dishes. So why not give it a try and start eating healthier today?
Bottle Gourd (Lauki) Nutrition Facts and Calories Chart
It is a nutritious vegetable that is low in calories and high in dietary fiber. It is a good source of vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron, and manganese. Also contains smaller amounts of calcium, phosphorus, zinc, and other vitamins and minerals. Bottle gourd is a good source of antioxidants, which help protect the cells in the body from damage caused by free radicals. Additionally, bottle gourd contains lignans, which have been linked to reduced risk of certain cancers. Nutritional value per 100 g bottle gourd:
- Biotin: 0 mcg
- Calcium: 12 mg
- Carbohydrates (Carbs): 2.63 g
- Chloride: 59 mg
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Choline: 0 mg
- Chromium: 0 mcg
- Copper: 0.06 mg
- Dietary Fiber: 0.5 g
- Energy (Calories): 16 kcal
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Iodine: 0 mcg
- Iron: 0.4 mg
- Magnesium: 12 mg
- Manganese: 0.05 mg
- Molybdenum: 0 mcg
- Pantothenic Acid: 0.12 mg
- Phosphorus: 24 mg
- Potassium: 147 mg
- Protein: 0.6 g
- Saturated fat: 0.02 g
- Selenium: 0.2 mcg
- Sodium: 8 mg
- Sugars: 0.3 g
- Vitamin A: 7 mcg
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): 0.02 mg
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 0.02 mg
- Vitamin B3 (Niacin): 0.2 mg
- Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 0.12 mg
- Vitamin B6: 0.05 mg
- Vitamin B9 (Folate / Folic Acid): 8 mcg
- Vitamin B12: 0 mcg
- Vitamin C: 7.7 mg
- Vitamin D: 0 mcg
- Vitamin E: 0.05 mg
- Vitamin K: 2.3 mcg
- Water: 94.5 g
- Zinc: 0.12 mg
Bottle Gourd in India
Dried bottle gourds are used to make many musical instruments and various decorative ornaments. Dried bottle gourd fruits are used as containers for storing and transporting drinking water, porridge, fresh or fermented milk, local beer and wine, honey, ghee, animal fat, salt, tobacco, perfume, medicinal herbs, crop seeds or food grains.
- Scientific Binomial: Lagenaria siceraria / Lagenaria Vulgaris
- Common English: Bitter Calbash Gourd / Opo Squash / Long Melon
- Ayurvedic: Tumbini / Ikshavaaku / Tiktaalaavu / Pindaphalaa
- Unani: Kaddu-e-talkh
- Sanskrit: Tiktalabu
- Hindi / Urdu: Lauki / Ghia
- Bengali: Ladu / Lau
- Marathi: Dudhi Bhopala / Pandhara bhopla
- Telugu: Sorakkaya
- Tamil: Suraikai / Surakkai / Chorakkai
- Gujarati
- Kannada: Sorekayi
- Malayalam: Pechura / Chorakaa
- Oriya
- Punjabi / Sindhi
- Assamese
- Kashmiri
- Konkani
- Manipuri
- Dogri
- Bhojpuri
Home Remedies
There are variety of recipes possible with lauki – from sweet halawa to spicy curry. All of cooked vegetable of lauki are a diuretic and stool-forming drug. Bottle gourd gives cooling effect to the body and hence good to eat during summer season. It helps to retain the water level in the body during summer. It is a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, potassium and zinc.
- Dandruff: To treat dandruff try mixing amla juice and bottle gourd juice in equal amount and massage regularly on dry hair scalp.
- Piles: Bottle gourds are useful for stress reduction, hypertension, healthy heart and sleeping disorders. Lauki leaves juice applied on hemorrhoids is helpful to get quick relief from pain.
- Urinary Tract Infection: In retention of placenta after delivery, the dried leaves and tendrils of bottle gourd were burnt for giving local fumigation. Bottle gourd useful in urine disorders and urinary tract infection as it reduces the sodium from the body.
- Asthma: To treat asthma try this folk remedy with bottle gourd. Wrap the gourd in a wet cloth and bury it under hot soil for half an hour. Once the lauki is dry roasted in this manner, squeeze the juice from it and give it to the asthma patients. Repeat the same for at least 40 days to get asthma cure completely.
- Weight Loss: Bottle gourd cooked with salt and eaten everyday is best way to reduce weight fast. It contains lot of fiber which makes you feel not hungry.
- Skin Care: Drinking bottle gourd juice everyday is good for skin too. It cleanse the internal organs which eventually makes your skin clean and clear.
- Diabetes: Drinking lauki juice early morning with empty stomach may helpful for diabetes patients. Cardiovascular disorder is claimed to be relieved following regular intake of bottle gourd juice for about 4-6 months.
- Digestive Aid: Juice of fruit used for stomach acidity, indigestion and ulcers.
- Fever and Sun Stroke: To treat fever applying pulp of bottle gourd on forehead considered very useful. Applying such pulp on forehead is also useful in case of sun stroke.
- Vaginal Discharge: The bitter variety of lagenaria siceraria is considered good for adenitis, where as sweet variety is good in the treatment of vaginal discharges.
- Jaundice: In folk medicine, decoction of leaves of the bitter variety is given in jaundice.
- Delirium: The fruit pulp is applied externally in delirium.
- Headaches: The seed oil is massaged in headaches. Seeds are given internally in dropsy and as diuretic and anthelmintic.