Caigua
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| Caigua | ||||||||||||||
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| Cyclanthera pedata (L.) Schrader |
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Momordica pedata L. |
The caigua (pronounced kai-wa) is a vine grown for its small fruit, used as a vegetable. It is also known as caygua, caihua, cayua, achocha, achokcha, slipper gourd, lady's slipper, sparrow gourd (Chinese: 小雀瓜; pinyin: xiǎoquè guā), stuffing cucumber, or korila. In case of disease or/and obesity it can be eaten as juice extract during a fast. It is also effective as dehydrated powder. It has various traditional medicinal usages, mainly to:control cholesterol, reduce obesity, control high blood pressure, regulates the metabolism of lipids and sugar in the blood stream and decreasing cholesterol.
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[edit] Origin and distribution
Likely domesticated in the Andes, the caigua is now grown many parts of Central America and South America, as well as parts of the Eastern Hemisphere tropics. The Moche culture had a fascination with agriculture and displayed this in their art. Caiguas were often depicted in their ceramics.[1]
[edit] Food uses
The immature fruits may be eaten raw or pickled. Unlike many cucurbitaceous fruits, the caigua become quite hollow as it matures, and the mature fruit is often eaten stuffed. The young shoots and leaves may also be eaten as greens.
[edit] Health Effects
Caigua reduces blood cholesterol levels, especially light cholesterol (LDL) that is accumulated in arteries as lipoprotein components which are determinative agents on arteriosclerosis processes. It is doubly beneficial since it reduces LDL cholesterol (known as the bad type), while it has been shown in various clinical studies that it increases the HDL cholesterol (known as the good type). This double effect makes caigua an ideal compound for helping to control more adequate levels of blood cholesterol.
It has been said it is the most natural and the most potent fat absorber and taken together with Hercampuri, it is consumed to rejuvenate & reduce cellulite.
[edit] Phytochemicals
Ripe fruit contains: peptin, galacturonic acid, dihydroxitriptamine, pierine, resins, minerals (phosphorus), vitamins (thiamine, vit. C), lipoproteins and steroidal compound (systosterol and 3 beta D glucoside) with hypoglicaemic and antilipemic (against cholesterol LDL) action, low density lipoproteins.
[edit] Pharmalogical Information
The unicentric, randomized, parallel and double blind test carried out in the Cayetano Heredia University in post-menopausal women showed reduction in cholesterol levels with a dosage of 1800 mg of micro-pulverized caigua daily. Hypercholesterol was reduced from 75% to 12.5%. It was shown that the levels of the LDL cholesterol decreased, while that of HDL cholesterol increased.
Another study realized by the same University in 60 adults for a period of 12 weeks registered the reduction of LDL cholesterol by 23% and increase of HDL cholesterol by 42% in the group treated with 6 capsules daily. In the cases of hypercholesterolaemia, treatment with 6 capsules daily normalized the levels of seric cholesterol in 82% of the cases.
A preclinical study showed a decrease in cholesterol levels from the 332.4 in the control group to 128.4 in the group treated with freeze-dried caigua at a dosage of 40mg/100g of diet for a period of 8 weeks. Results from clinical studies on adult male and females in Peru suggest that dehydrated Caigua resulted in an adequate treatment for cases of hyper-cholesterolemia and/or hypertriglyceridemia.
A preclinical study compared the anti-inflammatory effect of caigua, administered intra-peritoneum, with that of ibuprofin, showing an anti-inflammatory effect of 57% in the case of caigua at the maximum dosage investigated, as compared with 35.7%in the case of ibuprofin. The effect was shown to be dosage dependent. A similar study using oral administration showed a more moderate effect with respect to the percentage inhibition of inflammation, but always dosage dependent
[edit] External links
- Multilingual taxonomic information from the University of Melbourne
- Photo at Solana Seeds
- Photos from the Ukraine
[edit] References
- ^ Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
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