Citrullus colocynthis, with many common names including Abu Jahl's melon, (native name in Turkey)[2] colocynth,[3] bitter apple,[3] bitter cucumber,[3] egusi,[4] vine of Sodom,[3] or wild gourd,[3] is a poisonous desert viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and West Asia, especially the Levant,[5][6][7] Turkey (especially in regions such as İzmir), and Nubia.

They are monoecious, so the male (stamens) and the female reproductive parts (pistils and ovary) are borne in different flowers on the same plant.

It is an annual or a perennial plant in the wild in Indian arid zones, and survives under extreme xeric conditions.

The fruit which is known in commerce as the Turkish colocynth is collected by the native peasants (fellaheens) in July and August, before it is quite ripe, and is sold to Jaffa dealers, who peel it and dry the pulp in the sun, It is then molded into irregular small balls, packed in boxes and exported, mostly via England.

However, seed germination is poor due to the extreme xeric conditions, so vegetative propagation is more common and successful in nature.

Growth declines as soon as the rains and the temperature decrease and almost stops during the cold and dry months of December and January.

To improve it, a relatively new protocol for regeneration has been developed with the aim of incorporating disease and stress resistance to increase yield potential and security avoiding interspecific hybridization barriers.

[citation needed] The characteristic small seed of the colocynth have been found in several early archeological sites in northern Africa and the Near East, specifically at Neolithic Armant, Nagada in Egypt; at sites dating from 3800 BC to Roman times in Libya; and the pre-pottery Neolithic levels of the Nahal Hemar caves in Palestine.

[6] The seeds of colocynth, which must be separated from the pulp and heated to make edible,[9] have been used since antiquity as a food source in areas of the Sahara and Sahel where crops frequently fail or regular farming is impossible.

The enigmatic early Egyptian ceramic Clayton rings found in the Western Desert may have been portable ovens for roasting colocynth seeds.

The closely related watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb)) was domesticated in Ancient Egypt, and may have been developed for edible seed from cultivated colocynth.

[11] The production is not time- and energy-consuming due to the ability of colocynth to grow on poor soils with just a little moisture and organic fertilizer.

The fruits are harvested still unripe by hand, the rind is removed by peeling and the inner pulp filled with seeds is dried in the sun or in ovens.

[11][24] Oleic and linoleic acids isolated from C. colocynthis petroleum ether extracts show larvicidal activity against mosquitoes.