Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MH082 : Cucumis melo L.

Plant Category : Herbs

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 208

Synonym : -

Plant Common Name : Sherni, Seinat, Kharmuj, Musk Melon, Sweet Melon, Melon, Sinar,

Plant Family : Cucurbitaceae

Description : Annual or sometimes perennial (in wild form), trailing, prostrate or rarely climbing herb. Stem angular and hirsute, sometimes becoming circular and glabrous. Leaves ± reniform, 5-angled or shallowly 5-lobed, lobes obtuse, both surfaces covered with soft villous hairs; size variable, 5-15 cm long and as much broad, smaller in wild forms. Male flowers fasciculate; peduncle 5-3 cm long. Calyx tube villous, 5-8 mm long, sepals subulate. Corolla 1-2 cm long. Fruits variable in size, shape, texture and colour, generally glabrous. Seeds white, oblong and emarginate.

Plant Location in Melghat : In fields stream beds,among grasses

Medicinal Use / Activity : diuretic, chronic or acute eczema, fruit is cooling, fattening, tonic, laxative, aphrodisiac and diuretic; cures biliousness, insanity, ascites and allays fatigue. The seeds are lachrymatory, diuretic, cooling, tonic and nutritive; used in ophthalmia, liver and kidney troubles, bronchitis, burning of the throat, chronic fever, painful discharges and supression of urine. They are also beneficial to the enlargement of prostate gland.

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: Fruit: Cucurbitacin B; Cucurbitacin E; Cucurbitin; ferulic acid; catteic acid; chlorogenic acid; Beta-sitosterol;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (6):

Beta-sitosterol;

Cucurbitacin;

Cucurbitacin E;

Cucurbitacin B;

Chlorogenic acid;

Ferulic acid;

Plant's Current Status :

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200022613 - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/279665

Reference : ~ Boeing H, Bechthold A, Bub A, Ellinger S, Haller D, Kroke A, Leschik-Bonnet E, Muller MJ, Oberritter H, Schulze M, Stehle P and Watzl B; "Critical review: vegetables and fruit in the prevention of chronic diseases"; Eur J Nutr (2012); 51(6): 637-63 PMID : 22684631

~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID :

~ S.D. Jagtap, S.S. Deokule and S.V. Bhosle; "Some unique ethnomedicinal uses of plants used by the Korku tribe of Amravati district of Maharashtra, India"; Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2006); 107: 463-469 PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass : Dilleniidae
Order : Violales
Family : Cucurbitaceae - Cucumber family
Genus : Cucumis L. - melon
Species : Cucumis melo L. - cantaloupe

Cucumis melo L. - cantaloupe
Cucumis melo L. - cantaloupe