Solanum lasiocarpum, synonym Solanum ferox L, otherwise known as Indian nightshade or hairy-fruited eggplant, is a plant that produces edible fruit. Its flowers are white and its fruits are pale yellow.

S. lasiocarpum is found wild in parts of temperate and tropical Asia: the Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka, Indochina, south China, Taiwan, much of Malesia, Papuasia, and Queensland, Australia.^[rx] In other countries, it is primarily known as a domesticated plant. Domesticated plants bear larger fruits and lack the prickly skin that is found in wild plants. The color found in the center of the fruit is light green, like that of Solanum quitoense. It’s cultivated in tropical Asia, used in food additives for flavoring, and given to the sick as folk medicine.^[3] In India, the locals use the fruit as a sour-relish in curries. In Thailand, a special kind of sauce called Nam prek is made with fruit.^[rx]

Solanum Ariocarpus is of interest to botanists because of its strong resemblance to, and apparent close relation to South American species, the Cocona (S. sessiliflorum), the naranjilla (S. quitoense), and the pseudolulo (S. pseudolulo) in particular. When grown outside of their native range, all four of those plants will readily hybridize, producing sterile offspring. This has some potential to enhance the commercial viability of each of those species elsewhere in the world.^[rx]

Hairy eggplants, botanically classified as Solanum Ariocarpus is a member of the Solanaceae or Nightshade family. The plant is native to South Asia – India, Sri Lanka; Southeast Asia – Kampuchea Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malesia – Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea; southern China – Guangdong, Guangxi, South and southeast Yunnan and Taiwan. It is found in the Bamaga area at the tip of Cape York Peninsula, north Queensland, Australia, possibly an introduced species. Today, Hairy eggplants are available at farmers’ markets, home gardens, and specialty grocers in Asia, South America, and the United States.

Also known as the Sour eggplant, Hairy Egg Plant, Hairy-Fruited Eggplant, Hairy Nightshade, Indian Nightshade, Terong Asam, Thai Hairy-Fruited Eggplant and Wild brinjal in English, Hairy eggplants has a number of names in other languages including Coconilla, Bura-Bura, Bolo Maka, Cocochat, Pupu, Cupido, Pimple, and Tupirito.  The plant is cultivated in tropical Asia, used in food additives for flavoring, and given to the sick as folk medicine. In India, the locals use the fruit as a sour-relish in curries. In Thailand, a special kind of sauce called Nam prek is made with fruit. The small hairy fruits are occasionally seen in markets cleaned of their spiny exterior or even as a frozen product in ethnic grocery stores and are favored for their sweet and sour passion fruit-like flavor. The plants have also become prolific in everyday front-yard gardens, and because of its popularity, new varieties of Hairy eggplant have been developed that have thorn-free vines and leaves.

Hairy Eggplant Scientific Classification

Scientific Name: Solanum lasiocarpum

Hairy Eggplant Facts

Plant Description

A hairy eggplant is a sub-erect or spreading, ignescent perennial shrub that normally grows about 1–1.5 m tall. The plant is found growing in thickets, open forests, disturbed sites in the rain forests or monsoon forests, near roads, humid places, and wet places in ravines, valleys, and forest openings. The stem is hairy, thorny, and woody, with upright, spreading branches, sometimes with tinged light or dark purple.

Leaves

The leaf can be characterized as an alternate, simple, large, green, 10–20 cm long and 8–18 cm wide pinnately veined, ovate to ovate-elliptic, prickly with 4-6 short, broadly triangular lobes on each side, with smaller secondary lobes. The plant has a 5-8 cm long petiole with very fine wool-like hair. Besides, the upper leaves are usually smaller, narrower, less lobed, and often sub-opposite than those at the bottom.

Flower

Inflorescences are usually short, 0.4-0.9 cm, extra-axillary, often very close to a leaf pair, unbranched, with 6-16 flowers, the distal ones female-sterile, and the axes stellate-pubescent. The flowers are all bisexual and regular with 4-10 merous. The calyx is broadly campanulate, 6-9 mm wide, 6-9 mm long, the tube 2.5-4.5 mm, the lobes 3-5 mm long and 2.5-5 mm, deltoid or broadly ovate-apiculate, abaxially densely sericeous or occasionally felty, the stellae with delicate, elongate midpoints, rays, and stalks. Corolla 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, 7-16 mm long, stellate, thin-textured, white, the tube 5-8 mm, the lobes 6-9 mm long and  3-6 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, stellate-pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Stamens with filaments ca. 0.1-0.2 mm; anthers 6-8.5 mm long and 1.5-2.2 mm at the base, linear-lanceolate, attenuate, connivent, yellow, the pores minute and directed distally. The ovary is pubescent, the hairs appearing simple but with underdeveloped rays at base; style 5-10 mm long and 0.25-0.6 mm wide, cylindrical, glabrous; stigma capitate. Flowering normally takes place between June and October.

Fruit

Fertile flowers are followed by small and round fruit, approximately 1-2 centimeters in diameter. The tiny eggplant’s outer skin is initially green when immature, but then ripens to a yellow or orange and is covered in a fine layer of prickly hair. The inner pulp has many edible seeds and is also yellow or orange. Hairy eggplants are tangy and have a tropical, floral taste with a crunchy bite. Domesticated plants bear larger fruits and lack the prickly skin that is found in wild plants. The color found in the center of the fruit is light green, like that of Solanum quitoense. Numerous seeds are found that are 2.2-3.5 mm long and 1.75-2.5 mm wide, pale yellow, lenticular, slightly notched, broadly reniform-ovate in outline, the surfaces minutely pitted.

Traditional uses and benefits of Hairy Eggplant

• In Malaysia, a decoction of the roots is prescribed for violent pains all over the body and discomfort after meals.
• Root decoction is taken for syphilis.
• Roots are used externally in a bath for fever at night, and in a poultice for itches, cuts, wounds, and severe bruises.
• Seeds are used for treating toothache by burning them and inhaling the fumes.
• It is used as a remedy for coughs, asthma, fever, vomiting, sore throat, gonorrhea, and female sexual disorders in Bangladesh and Indian traditional folk medicine.
• The Hairy eggplant is used to help stimulate the release of urine and to calm symptoms of splenic trouble in Suriname.
• In the Philippines, the leaves of the hairy eggplant as poultices are used to help reduce swelling and body pains.
• Leaf has been used as a traditional medicine to treat allergy, body ache and swelling, skin injuries, and headache.
• It is used by locals as Chinese herbal medicine for effective curing of cough, bruises, hernia, sore throat, and tooth decay, edema as well as having an anesthetic effect.
• It has been used by the Tonchongya tribal community of Roangchaari Upazila of Bandarban district, Bangladesh to treat toothache and syphilis disease.

Culinary Uses

• The edible fruits are harvested from the wild or from cultivation.
• In India and Southeast Asia, the fruit is widely used as a sour-relish in curries and sauces such as name park in Thailand.
• Hairy eggplant is often used as a finishing condiment and paired with Nam prik kapi, which is a Thai chili sauce made with shrimp paste and lime.

Other Facts

• It is used in traditional folk medicine in Asia.
• The fruit was reported to be used in black magic in Malaysia.
• A bunch of strong asam fruits and Dracaena in a net is placed on an expectant mother’s head and under the floor to prevent the approach of evil spirits.
• Seeds yield yellow-colored oil, containing palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid.

References

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