It is a popular vegetable in north-east India, and is known as khamen akhaba in Manipuri and samṭawk in Mizo.

These names are a result of its varied morphology, with ripe fruit often looking like a cross between an eggplant and a tomato, which are also from Solanum.

The highly variable fruit of the plant is eaten both raw and cooked and is becoming more popular as a cultivated crop.

The only place where S. aethiopicum is grown to a significant extent in Europe lies in South Italy, in Rotonda in the Basilicata, where this plant is of some commercial importance.

It was likely introduced by veterans returning from East Africa after the colonial war in the late 19th century.