Citrullus colocynthis, with many common names including colocynth, bitter apple, bitter cucumber, desert gourdegusi, vine of Sodom, or wild gourd, is a desert viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and Asia, especially Turkey (especially in regions such as İzmir), Nubia, and Trieste.

It resembles a common watermelon vine, but bears small, hard fruits with a bitter pulp. It originally bore the scientific name Colocynthis citrullus.

Uses:

C. colocynthis can be eaten or elaborated for further uses in medicine and as energy source, e.g. oilseed and biofuel. The characteristic small seed of the colocynth have been found in several early archeological sites in northern Africa and the Near East, specifically at Neolithic Armant, Nagada in Egypt; at sites dating from 3800 BC to Roman times in Libya; and the prepottery Neolithic levels of the Nahal Hemar caves in Israel. Zohary and Hopf speculate, "these finds indicate that the wild colocynth was very probably used by humans prior to its domestication."

Practical uses

The oil obtained from the seeds (47%) can be used for medicinal and soap production.^[5] The production is not very time- and energy-consuming due to the ability of colocynth to grow on poor soils with just a little moisture and organic fertilizer. The fruits are harvested still unripe by hand, the rind is removed by peeling and the inner pulp filled with seeds is dried in the sun or in ovens. The seeds yield is about 6.7-10 t/ha, which means that for an oil profit of 31-47%, oil yields may reach up to 3 t/ha.