Gboma eggplant

Gboma eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon) is a herb or small shrub of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), 0.5–1.5 m tall, with branching stems that often bear small prickles. Leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, 10–20 cm long, with wavy, shallowly lobed margins; the veins sometimes carry small prickles and both surfaces are hairy. The flowers are bisexual, white or pale purple, star-shaped with five petals, borne in small axillary clusters and insect-pollinated. The fruit is a spherical berry 3–5 cm across, glossy greenish-white when young and yellowing at maturity; the flesh is white and spongy and holds many flat, pale-yellow seeds. The young fruit is crisp and slightly astringent, usually less bitter than the common eggplant.

Gboma eggplant is native to tropical Africa, domesticated long ago and introduced into Southeast Asia, where Vietnam is a major home-garden crop throughout the countryside. The plant likes warm, humid conditions and is grown from seed at the start of the rainy season, fruiting after 2–3 months. The young fruit is a rustic Vietnamese staple: pickled and eaten with shrimp paste and pork belly, or grilled, fried, braised and cooked in soup. In traditional medicine the fruit is sweet and cooling (the mature fruit is considered mildly toxic) and is used to clear heat, promote urination and reduce inflammation; the leaves and roots are used in folk remedies for swellings and boils. It is a familiar home-garden vegetable with a harvest lasting through the summer.