African Cucumber
In short
Summary of findings for quick reference
African cucumber here means Zehneria scabra, a wild climber of the cucumber family with rough leaves and small red berries that grows across tropical Africa, Arabia, India and parts of Southeast Asia. It is neither bitter melon nor kiwano, which share the English name. Its best documented use is Ethiopian, where hareg resa tops local surveys of medicinal plants. Crushed leaves are tied over swellings, leaves are also used on wounds, leaf juice is swallowed for diarrhoea, and boiled leaves give steam and drinks against fever. At the Cape the physician Ludwig Pappe recorded its root as an old Khoikhoi remedy as early as the 1850s.
What is known about its effects comes from mice and the laboratory. Leaf ointments closed wounds faster in mice, leaf extract by mouth eased castor oil diarrhoea and paw swelling, a root extract suppressed malaria parasites, and in the laboratory the leaf extract inhibited Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Screens of the leaf find tannins, phenols and flavonoids. No study has yet tested the plant in people, and the leaf and root findings belong to different materials.
No European authority has assessed the plant, so there is no approved use and no dose. Two mouse studies found no deaths after a single oral dose of 2000 mg per kg, but there are no safety data in people. The root decoction was known at the Cape as an emetic and purgative, and in Tanzania the plant is used to induce abortion, so it has no place in pregnancy. Fever and the other serious illnesses in its folk record need a doctor, not a home remedy.
Clinical evidence ↔ Historical significanceWe display two separate evidence categories: clinical evidence from modern trials and historical significance from documented healing tradition. Both are valuable, but they answer different questions.Read more
In every encyclopedia entry we evaluate two distinct categories of evidence. Clinical evidence as used in trials meets a narrower but scientifically essential bar. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide have only partially been captured and tested in modern studies.
Alongside the trial picture our researchers compile a comprehensive overview of where and since when a plant has been used across different traditions of natural medicine. When a plant has been used as a medicinal plant in many cultures across many generations, that historical significance deserves to be visible too.
Our position: a truly informative overview emerges only when both categories sit side by side. We communicate transparently what counts as what.
Overview
African cucumber in this encyclopedia means Zehneria scabra, a wild climber of the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). It scrambles over forest edges, riverside thickets and plantations across tropical Africa, from Liberia to Ethiopia and south to the Cape, and on through Arabia and India to Java and the Philippines. Its leaves feel rough to the touch, which is what scabra means, and the vines carry clusters of berries about a centimetre across that ripen bright red. It should not be confused with two better known plants that share the English name, bitter melon (Momordica charantia) and kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus), both of which have their own entries.
Its best documented use is Ethiopian. Under the Amharic name hareg resa it tops local surveys of medicinal plants, and people there use the fresh leaves for fever, swellings, wounds and diarrhoea, sometimes the root as well. At the Cape the physician Ludwig Pappe recorded the root in the 1850s as an old Khoikhoi remedy for skin complaints, dropsy and syphilis. Since the mid 2010s Ethiopian pharmacologists have tested leaf and root in mice, with encouraging results for wound healing, diarrhoea and a rodent malaria parasite. No study has yet tested the plant in people, and no European authority has assessed it.
History
Zehneria scabra entered European botany at the Cape. In 1782 Carl Linnaeus the Younger described it from a Cape specimen as Bryonia scabra, the rough bryony. The genus it belongs to today was named in 1833 by Stephan Endlicher, in a flora of Norfolk Island based on the plants Ferdinand Bauer had collected and painted there in 1804 and 1805, which were kept in the imperial natural history collection in Vienna. Endlicher dedicated the genus to Joseph Zehner of Vienna, in his words a most skilful painter of natural history and an expert observer. In 1862 Sonder moved the Cape plant into Zehneria in the Flora Capensis, which gave it the name it carries today.
The first written record of its medicinal use also comes from the Cape. In 1850 the physician Ludwig Pappe listed a root that the local people called Davidjeswortel. In his second edition of 1857 he assigned it to this plant, under the name Pilogyne ecklonii that is now a synonym of Zehneria scabra, and described its tuberous, resinous root as an old Khoikhoi remedy with a nauseous taste. Boiled, it acted as an emetic, a purgative and a diuretic at once, and people used it for skin complaints, dropsy and syphilis. Pappe also quoted the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg, for whom a root steeped in wine or brandy made a powerful emetic and purgative, but Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk later filed that note under a different Cape climber, Kedrostis nana. In 1932 they repeated Pappe's record under the Afrikaans name Dawidjieswortel and added what farmers had observed. Cattle ate the unpleasant-smelling vine readily, above all in autumn and winter when green fodder was scarce. It was suspected of poisoning stock, and suspected cases had diarrhoea and an irritated gut at post-mortem, yet feeding trials on sheep showed no harm.
The richest living tradition today is Ethiopian, and ethnobotanists keep finding hareg resa at the top of their lists. It drew the highest consensus of 163 medicinal plants around the Tara-gedam and Amba forests in 2015 and was the most often named species in Jawi District in 2024. Further south and east the record is thinner but telling. Marakwet healers in Kenya give the crushed leaves for colds and coughs, and in Kagera, northwest Tanzania, it is one of the herbs traditional providers use to bring on an abortion. In Kikuku village in the same region the boiled leaves are drunk for skin diseases, gonorrhoea, syphilis and malaria and to cleanse the womb before a birth, and in western Uganda people interviewed about medicinal plants named it first for skin infections. Since the mid 2010s pharmacology groups at Ethiopian universities, from Addis Ababa to Mizan-Tepi, have been testing its leaf and root in mice and in the laboratory.
Mechanism
Screens of the leaf find the defensive compounds that many medicinal plants carry. The leaf extract in Tadesse 2014 contained tannins, saponins, anthraquinones and phenols but no alkaloids, while the extract in Abate 2025 also tested positive for terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids, and its gas chromatography profile was dominated by a fatty aldehyde, valerenic acid and fatty acid methyl esters. From a Cameroonian form of the species, chemists isolated a new triterpenoid, sonhafouonic acid, which checked the growth of two plant pathogenic water moulds and was toxic to brine shrimp larvae. Tannins, phenols and flavonoids occur in countless plants, and no single compound from Zehneria scabra has been tested in mammals or people.
How the extracts act is inferred from the animal models, not measured. The authors of the diarrhoea study credit tannins and flavonoids, which promote the reabsorption of water and salts in the gut, for the drier stools and reduced secretion in mice. The wound researchers point to flavonoids, which damp down inflammatory enzymes, and to tannins, which tighten tissue and hold back bacteria. That fits the reduced paw swelling and the laboratory inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, two common wound bacteria. For the root's effect on malaria parasites no active compound has been identified. These explanations are plausible, and none has been confirmed in people.
No clinical trial has tested Zehneria scabra, so the modern evidence comes from mice and laboratory tests, almost all of it from Ethiopian university groups checking the plant's traditional uses. The wound work is the strongest line. Tekleyes and colleagues (2021) applied ointments with 5 and 10 percent leaf extract to incision and excision wounds in mice, five animals per group. Both closed the wounds faster, shortened the time to new skin and made the healed tissue stronger, and in wound closure the 10 percent ointment kept pace with the antiseptic standard nitrofurazone from day 12. Fisseha and colleagues (2022) repeated the wound models with leaf fractions, found faster healing with the ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions, and showed that leaf extract given by mouth reduced carrageenan paw swelling in step with the dose. For diarrhoea, Tadesse and colleagues (2014) gave mice 100 to 400 mg per kg of an 80 percent methanolic leaf extract. After castor oil, stool frequency fell by 40 to 55 percent, and in a second test the extract cut fluid build-up in the gut by 26 to 30 percent. In the laboratory, Abate and colleagues (2025) found that a leaf extract inhibited Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
A separate line of work uses the root. Nureye and colleagues (2021) gave mice infected with Plasmodium berghei, a rodent malaria parasite, an 80 percent hydroalcoholic root extract by mouth, six animals per group. Every dose suppressed the parasites by a statistically significant margin, the highest dose of 600 mg per kg by about 73 percent, and treated mice lived longer and lost fewer red blood cells. The comparison drug chloroquine cleared the parasites completely and kept every mouse alive for the 28 days of observation, while the best root dose stretched survival from about 7 to 12.5 days. A mouse model with a drug sensitive strain says nothing about malaria in people. Across these studies a single oral dose of 2000 mg per kg of leaf or root extract killed no mice, and leaf ointments did not harm mouse skin. One more laboratory test points the other way for pregnancy. In an organ bath, an extract of the plant made rat uterine tissue contract more often, which fits its use to induce abortion in Tanzania.
Evidence
| Outcome | Class | Grade | Effect | Studies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional use for fever, wounds and diarrhoeaHareg resa topped a survey of 163 medicinal plants in Libo Kemkem, northwest Ethiopia, named by 60 of 105 informants for diarrhoea, wounds, fever and swelling, and was the most often mentioned species in Jawi District in 2024. It is a living folk remedy that has never been tested in people.Ethiopian and East African folk medicine users | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | DEvidence quality grade D. Preliminary signal. A single small trial, pilot result, or laboratory or animal model. Clinical relevance unclear. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Documented folk use | |
| Wound healing and anti-inflammatory activity (leaf)In Tekleyes 2021, ointments with 5 and 10 percent leaf extract closed wounds faster in mice, shortened the time to new skin and made the healed tissue stronger, and in wound closure the 10 percent ointment matched the nitrofurazone standard from day 12. Fisseha 2022 confirmed faster healing with leaf fractions, and leaf extract given by mouth reduced paw swelling. Small groups of mice, no human data.Mice (leaf ointments on wounds and oral leaf extract, two studies) | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Animal study only | |
| Antidiarrhoeal and antisecretory activity (leaf)In Tadesse 2014, an 80 percent methanolic leaf extract at 100 to 400 mg per kg cut the number of stools after castor oil by 40 to 55 percent in mice, and in a second test it reduced fluid build-up in the gut by 26 to 30 percent. A single oral dose of 2000 mg per kg caused no deaths. One animal study, no human data.Mice (oral leaf extract, one study) | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Animal study only | |
| Antimalarial activity (root, different plant part)In Nureye 2021, an 80 percent hydroalcoholic root extract given by mouth suppressed Plasmodium berghei in infected mice at every dose, by about 73 percent at 600 mg per kg and 74 percent for the butanol fraction, and the mice lived longer. Chloroquine cleared the parasites completely. The finding concerns the root and a mouse malaria model.Mice (oral root extract, Plasmodium berghei) | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Animal study only | |
| Antibacterial activity (leaf)Abate 2025 found terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins and saponins in a leaf extract, which inhibited Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in the laboratory at amounts as low as 0.05 mg. A single laboratory screen, not tested against infections in animals or people.In vitro (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli) | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Laboratory only |
The studies that matter.
Researchers interviewed 105 people around the Tara-gedam and Amba forests in Libo Kemkem, northwest Ethiopia, and recorded 163 medicinal plants. Hareg resa ranked first, named by 60 informants (57 percent) for diarrhoea, wounds, febrile illness and swelling, with the leaf crushed and tied on swellings or chewed for diarrhoea and the boiled plant used as steam for fever. The survey shows how widely the plant is used, not whether it works.
Chekole G, Asfaw Z, Kelbessa E. Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in the environs of Tara-gedam and Amba remnant forests of Libo Kemkem District, northwest Ethiopia. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2015;11:4 doi:10.1186/1746-4269-11-4Ointments with 5 and 10 percent leaf extract were tested on incision and excision wounds in mice, five animals per group. Both closed the wounds faster, shortened the time to new skin and made the healed tissue stronger, and in wound closure the 10 percent ointment matched the antiseptic nitrofurazone from day 12. A small animal study that explains the interest in the traditional wound use but has not been repeated in people.
Tekleyes B, Huluka SA, Wondu K, Wondmkun YT. Wound Healing Activity of 80% Methanol Leaf Extract of Zehneria scabra (L.f) Sond (Cucurbitaceae) in Mice. J Exp Pharmacol 2021;13:537-544 doi:10.2147/JEP.S303808Mice received 100, 200 or 400 mg per kg of an 80 percent methanolic leaf extract before castor oil. Stool frequency fell by 40 to 55 percent, in a second test fluid build-up in the gut fell by 26 to 30 percent, and a single oral dose of 2000 mg per kg caused no deaths over 14 days. It is the only test of the diarrhoea use, in animals, and the main evidence for the low acute oral toxicity of the leaf.
Tadesse WT, Hailu AE, Gurmu AE, Mechesso AF. Experimental assessment of antidiarrheal and antisecretory activity of 80% methanolic leaf extract of Zehneria scabra in mice. BMC Complement Altern Med 2014;14:460 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-460Mice infected with the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei received an 80 percent methanolic root extract or its fractions by mouth, six animals per group. Every dose suppressed the parasites by a statistically significant margin, by 73 percent at 600 mg per kg and 74 percent for the butanol fraction, and survival rose from about 7 to 12.5 days, while chloroquine cleared the parasites and kept every mouse alive for 28 days. The only test of the root's malaria use, in a mouse model with a drug sensitive strain.
Nureye D, Tekalign E, Fisseha N, Tesfaye T, Hammeso WW. Evaluation of Antiplasmodial Activity of Hydroalcoholic Crude Extract and Solvent Fractions of Zehneria scabra Roots Against Plasmodium berghei in Swiss Albino Mice. Infect Drug Resist 2021;14:2583-2596 doi:10.2147/IDR.S314262The wound models were repeated in mice with chloroform, ethyl acetate and water fractions of the leaf, and the ethyl acetate fraction gave the clearest gains in wound closure and new skin. Given by mouth at 100 to 400 mg per kg, the leaf extract reduced carrageenan paw swelling by 38 to 53 percent, more at higher doses. A second, independent set of mice that supports the first wound study, still without human data.
Fisseha N, Hammeso WW, Nureye D, Tesfaye T, Yimer T. In-vivo Wound Healing and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of the Solvent Fraction of Zehneria scabra L.F. Sond (Cucurbitaceae) Leaves. J Exp Pharmacol 2022;14:367-377 doi:10.2147/JEP.S387364
Usage
Forms and preparation
In Ethiopia the fresh plant is used. For swellings, crushed leaves are tied over the spot. For diarrhoea, the leaves are chewed and the juice swallowed. For fever, the leaves are boiled and the patient sits in the steam in an enclosed space, often also drinking a cup of the liquid and washing with it in the morning. In Metema the leaves are boiled together with those of the sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus) and Cordia africana, so the fever remedy there is a mixture, not Zehneria alone. Where the root is used, as in Tigray for abdominal pain, it is prepared separately. These are household preparations from a wild plant, not products. There is no standardised preparation of Zehneria scabra, and the descriptions here record a tradition. They are not instructions to make your own.
Dosage
There is no dose for people. Folk recipes count in cups of boiled liquid rather than weighed amounts, and the figures in the literature, 100 to 600 mg of extract per kilogram of body weight, are doses given to mice that cannot be converted into a human amount. Do not dose yourself with this plant for any medical complaint, and take a serious illness to a doctor.
Special populations
Do not use Zehneria scabra in pregnancy or while breastfeeding. In Kagera, northwest Tanzania, it is one of the plants traditional providers use to bring on an abortion, in Kikuku village it is drunk to cleanse the womb before a birth, and in an organ bath its extract made rat uterine tissue contract more often. Nothing is known about its effects in children, so do not give it to them without medical advice.
Safety
Drug interactions
No interactions have been studied or reported, because the plant has never been tested alongside medicines. If you take prescription medicines, do not combine them with this unstudied herb without asking your doctor or pharmacist.
Contraindications
No authority has set contraindications for Zehneria scabra, because it has never been assessed as a medicine. The points below follow from its use record and the animal data. Pregnancy and breastfeeding: do not use. In Tanzania the plant is one of the herbs used to induce abortion and to cleanse the womb before a birth, its extract made rat uterine tissue contract more often in the laboratory, and there are no safety data in people. Children: do not give it to children without medical advice. It has never been studied in them, and the root acts as an emetic and purgative. Fever and serious illness: do not treat malaria, a fever of unknown cause, syphilis, gonorrhoea or any other serious condition from its folk record with this plant. See a doctor. Allergy to plants of the cucumber family: anyone who reacts to cucurbits should avoid it.
Side effects
Side effects in people have never been recorded systematically. The old Cape sources describe the root decoction as nauseating, emetic, purgative and diuretic, so vomiting, diarrhoea and frequent urination are the likely effects of the root. In mice the leaf and root extracts caused no visible harm at the doses tested. As with any member of the cucumber family, allergic reactions are possible. If symptoms appear, stop at once and see a doctor.
Look-alikes
Similar plants and look-alikes
Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) and kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus), the other African cucumbers
The real confusion is a name. In English, African cucumber is used far more often for two other plants, bitter gourd or bitter melon (Momordica charantia), the warty, oblong vegetable of Asian and African kitchens, and kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus), the horned melon. Both have their own entries and their own research. Zehneria scabra is a wild climber with small, smooth red berries, gathered as medicine and not grown as a vegetable. A study, a recipe or a product sold as African cucumber therefore tells you nothing about this plant unless it names Zehneria scabra.
Other wild cucurbit climbers (Coccinia, Kedrostis, Cucumis species)
Several wild members of the cucumber family, among them species of Cucumis, Coccinia and Kedrostis, carry bitter cucurbitacins. A bitter wild gourd or a bitter cucurbit juice can cause violent vomiting and diarrhoea and, in severe cases, circulatory shock. The bitter taste is the warning sign, so spit the bite out and throw the rest away. Gather a wild cucurbit only when you are certain of the species.
FAQs
Is African cucumber the same as bitter melon or kiwano?
No. African cucumber here means Zehneria scabra, a wild African climber of the cucumber family used in folk medicine. The English name African cucumber is used more often for bitter melon (Momordica charantia) and for kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus). Those are different species with their own entries and their own research, so check the botanical name before you apply anything you read.
What is the plant called in Africa?
In Amharic it is hareg resa or areg resa, in Ge'ez etse sabieq, in Afaan Oromo daaymii, in Tigrinya hafaflo and in Gedeo kiete. The Marakwet of Kenya call it cheserya, people in Kagera in northwest Tanzania engenyi or akabindizi, and in South Africa its root was known as Davidjeswortel, later spelled Dawidjieswortel.
What part of the plant is used and for what?
Mostly the fresh leaves and stems. In Ethiopia crushed leaves are tied over swellings, leaves are also used on wounds, the juice of chewed leaves is swallowed for diarrhoea, and boiled leaves give steam and drinks against fever. Some communities also use the root, in Tigray for abdominal pain and in southwest Ethiopia for malaria. Leaf and root are different materials, and laboratory findings for one do not carry over to the other.
Is there scientific evidence that it works?
Not in people yet, because no clinical trial has tested the plant. In mice, leaf ointments healed wounds faster, leaf extract by mouth eased castor oil diarrhoea and paw swelling, and a root extract suppressed malaria parasites. In the laboratory the leaf extract inhibited Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. These results fit the traditional uses and explain the scientific interest, but they do not show what the plant does for a person.
Does it have any official status in Europe?
No. No European authority has assessed Zehneria scabra, as a medicinal plant or as a food, and no health claim is authorised for it, so Europe sets no standard for its use, dose or quality. What is a home remedy in Ethiopia is an untested plant in Europe.
Is African cucumber safe to use?
It has not been studied in people, and its record holds real warnings. Two mouse studies found no deaths after a single oral dose of 2000 mg per kg, and leaf ointments did not harm mouse skin. Against that, the root decoction was known at the Cape as an emetic and purgative, and in northwest Tanzania the plant is one of the herbs traditional providers use to induce abortion. Do not use it in pregnancy or while breastfeeding, do not give it to children without medical advice, and do not treat a fever or any serious illness with it instead of seeing a doctor.
Where does the plant grow?
Across most of tropical Africa, from Liberia to Ethiopia and south to the Cape, and on through Arabia and India to Java and the Philippines. It climbs over forest edges, riverside thickets and plantations, in the highlands of northern Ethiopia up to almost 2,200 metres. It is gathered from the wild.
23 sources.
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- Tadesse WT, Hailu AE, Gurmu AE, Mechesso AF. Experimental assessment of antidiarrheal and antisecretory activity of 80% methanolic leaf extract of Zehneria scabra in mice. BMC Complement Altern Med 2014;14:460. 2014. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-460
- Tekleyes B, Huluka SA, Wondu K, Wondmkun YT. Wound Healing Activity of 80% Methanol Leaf Extract of Zehneria scabra (L.f) Sond (Cucurbitaceae) in Mice. J Exp Pharmacol 2021;13:537-544. 2021. doi:10.2147/JEP.S303808
- Fisseha N, Hammeso WW, Nureye D, Tesfaye T, Yimer T. In-vivo Wound Healing and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of the Solvent Fraction of Zehneria scabra L.F. Sond (Cucurbitaceae) Leaves. J Exp Pharmacol 2022;14:367-377. 2022. doi:10.2147/JEP.S387364
- Nureye D, Tekalign E, Fisseha N, Tesfaye T, Hammeso WW. Evaluation of Antiplasmodial Activity of Hydroalcoholic Crude Extract and Solvent Fractions of Zehneria scabra Roots Against Plasmodium berghei in Swiss Albino Mice. Infect Drug Resist 2021;14:2583-2596. 2021. doi:10.2147/IDR.S314262
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Legal notice: The depiction of historical significance and traditional use is context within our encyclopedia and not a health claim for any product, not a treatment promise, and not a substitute for medical advice. What may be stated on product labels, product pages, or in advertising is governed by the applicable legal requirements.