Calabash, also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, New Guinea bean and Tasmania bean, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, container, or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

Bottle gourd is a fast-growing, annual climber (vine) that requires adequate sunlight for flowering and fruiting. It can be grown in a wide range of soils and need trellis support for a spread.

Its intensely branched stems bear musky, deep green, broad leaves just similar as that in pumpkins, and white, monoecious flowers in the summer. After about 75 days from the plantation, young, tender, edible fruits evolve that will be ready for harvesting.

Bottle gourds come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The fruit features oval, pear-shaped, or elongated and smooth skin that is light green. In the case of round or pear-shaped calabash, their surface is marked by inconspicuous ridges that run lengthwise. Internally, its flesh is white, spongy, and embedded with soft, tiny seeds. As the fruit begins to mature, its seeds gradually grow similar to as that in honeydew melons.

Bottle gourd is one of the lowest-calorie vegetables- carrying just 14 calories per 100 g. It is one of the vegetables recommended by dieticians in weight-control programs.

Fresh gourds contain small quantities of folates, contain about 6 µg/100g (Provide just 1.5% of RDA). Folate helps reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in newborns when taken by anticipant mothers during their early months of pregnancy.

Fresh calabash gourd is a modest source of vitamin-C (100 g of raw fruit provides 10 mg or about 17% of RDA). Vitamin-C is one of the powerful natural antioxidants that help scavenge harmful free radicals

Calabash facilitates easy digestion and movement of food through the bowel until it is excreted from the body. Thus, it helps in relieving indigestion and constipation problems.

Also, the vegetable is also a modest source of thiamin, niacin (vitamin B-3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), and minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, manganese, and magnesium.

Its tender leaves and tendrils are also edible; indeed carry higher concentrations of vitamins and minerals than the bottle gourd fruit.