name: Towel Gourd

flavor_db_name_variants: towel gourd

source: foodb

status: draft

food_db_id: Towel gourd

id: 492

name_scientific: Luffa aegyptiaca

description: Luffa is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines classified in the cucumber family. In everyday non-technical usage the name, also spelled loofah, usually refers to the fruit of the two species Luffa aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula. The fruit of these species is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable. The fruit must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in China and southeast Asia. When the fruit is fully ripened it is very fibrous. The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge which is used in bathrooms and kitchens as a sponge tool. Luffa are not frost-hardy, and require 150 to 200 warm days to mature.

itis_id: 503570

wikipedia_id: Luffa

picture_file_name: 503.jpg

picture_content_type: image/jpeg

picture_file_size: 244634

picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:37:26.000Z

legacy_id: 530

food_group: Gourds

food_subgroup: Gourds

food_type: Type 1

created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:45.000Z

updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:05:26.000Z

creator_id: null

updater_id: null

export_to_afcdb: false

category: specific

ncbi_taxonomy_id: 3670

export_to_foodb: true

public_id: FOOD00492