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Toxic☠️ To avoid

🚫 Colocynth (bitter apple)

Citrullus colocynthis · Cucurbitaceae

🏜️ Desert🫒 Mediterranean🌍 Africa
🧠 To remember it“Bitter at first taste, keep it off your plate” — a wild watermelon that tastes horribly bitter at the slightest trace on your tongue is a colocynth: spit it out and stop right there.
Colocynth (bitter apple) — Citrullus colocynthis

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Trailing vine from 2.4 to 3 m long with climbing tendrils and palmate, angular leaves with 3-7 lobes — closely resembling those of a young watermelon. The solitary yellow flowers with a 5-lobed corolla precede a smooth, spherical fruit of 5 to 10 cm, green-yellow turning mottled at maturity, strongly resembling a small wild watermelon. The inner pulp, extremely bitter, immediately reveals the species from the first bite.

  1. trailing vine with tendrils, palmate leaves with 3-7 lobes very similar to watermelon leaves
  2. smooth spherical fruit of 5-10 cm, green-yellow turning mottled when mature
  3. extremely bitter inner pulp (almost foolproof signature of the species)
  4. grey seeds about 5 mm long, with a bitter, nutty taste
Size2.4-3 m long vine
Floweringsummer, fruits in late summer-autumn
HabitatMediterranean Basin and Western Asia, in sandy desert and semi-desert areas

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wild / cultivated watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)none for watermelon, edible

To tell them apart: the resemblance of foliage and fruit is deceptively close between the two species of the same genus; the decisive and safe test is tasting a tiny amount of pulp: colocynth is immediately and intensely bitter, whereas watermelon, even wild and barely sweet, is never bitter to this extent — if in doubt, never swallow, spit out immediately

☠️ What kills

nomCucurbitacins (cytotoxic and strongly purgative triterpenoid compounds)
dose letale estimeenot precisely quantified in the consulted sources; the extremely bitter taste usually deters accidental ingestion of large amounts
delaivaries depending on the amount ingested
symptomessevere gastroenteritis, violent diarrhea, dehydration; historical use documented as a drastic purgative ("troches of alhandal") now abandoned due to its toxicity
antidoteno specific antidote; rehydration and symptomatic care, seek medical advice in case of significant ingestion
morts documenteeshistorical use as a violent purgative reported as dangerous in literature; rule out any internal use today

First steps : Spit out immediately if you taste an unexpected bitterness in a fruit resembling a wild watermelon. In case of ingestion, hydrate abundantly and consult a doctor or a poison control center if severe digestive symptoms appear.

💊 Healing with it

historically used as a powerful purgative in traditional medicine, and in traditional Arab veterinary medicine (sap applied to camel skin conditions); the seeds, once separated from the pulp and boiled for a long time, have been consumed since Antiquity in certain Saharan regions during famine years, and are used in the preparation of egusi in West Africa

Level of evidence : traditional use — Wikipedia — Citrullus colocynthis

⚠️ the pulp and skin of the fruit remain toxic and must never be consumed as is; only the well-cooked seed, freed from all pulp, has a documented traditional food use — do not attempt without precise knowledge of local preparation

Sources (1)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.