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 | Cucumber Other Names: Cowcumber
Botanical Name: Cucumis sativa (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Cucurbitaceae |
Description: |
In the East this trailing annual plant has been extensively cultivated from some 3,000 years and spread westward. It was known to the Greeks (the Greek name being sikuos) and to the Romans. According to Pliny, the Emperor Tiberius had it on his table daily, summer and winter. Pliny describes the Italian fruit as very small, probably like our gherkin; the same form is figured in Herbals of the sixteenth century, but states, 'if hung in a tube while in blossom, the Cucumber will grow to a most surprising length.' In Bible history, the Israelites in the wilderness complained to Moses that they missed the luxuries they had in Egypt, 'Cucumbers and Melons,' and Hasselquist in his travels (middle of eighteenth century) states: 'they still form a great part of the food of the lower-class people in Egypt serving them for meat, drink and physic.' Isaiah, speaking of the desolation of Judah says: 'The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.' The Cucumber of the Scriptures is, however, by some authorities considered to be a wild form of Cucumis melo, the melon.
The Cucumber has been long known in England, where it was common in the time of Edward III (1327), then fell into disuse and was forgotten till the reign of Henry VIII, but not generally cultivated here till the middle of the seventeenth century. It is too well known to need description. |
Habitat: |
| Native of East Indies. First cultivated in Britain about 1573. |
Constituents: |
| The dietary value of Cucumber is negligible, there being upwards of 96 per cent water in its composition. |
Medicinal Usage: |
Cucumber seeds possess similar properties to those of the allied Pumpkin (Cucurbita Pepo, Linn.) which are distinctly diuretic, but mainly employed as a very efficient taeniacide, 1 to 2 oz. of the seed, thoroughly ground and made into an electuary with sugar, or into an emetic with water, being taken fasting, followed in from 1 to 2 hours by an active purge. The resin has been given in doses of 15 grains.
Cucumber seeds are much smaller than Pumpkin seeds, relatively narrower and thicker and with almost no marginal groove. The emulsion made by bruising Cucumber seeds and rubbing them up with water was formerly thought to possess considerable virtue and was much used in catarrhal affections and diseases of the bowels and urinary passages. |
Ancient Lore: |
CUCUMBER CUCUMIS SATIVUS
Theface being washed with the distilled water of them cureth the reddest face that is. A very well-known salad vegetable in use for at least 3,000 years. Where to find it: Every keen gardener grows it. Flowering time: Summer.
Astrology: There is no dispute to be made but that they are under the dominion of the Moon, though they are much cried out against for their coldness; any colder and they would be poison.
Medicinal virtues: They are excellent for a hot stomach and liver, although the unmeasurable use of them fills the body full of raw humours. The face being washed with their juice cleanseth the skin and is excellent for hot rheums in the eyes. The seed is excellent to provoke urine and cleanseth the passages thereof when they are stopped. There is not a better remedy than Cucumbers for ulcers in the bladder. The usual method is to use the seed in emulsions, as one makes Almond milk; but a better way is to bruise the Cucumbers and distil the water from them. Those that are troubled with ulcers in the bladder should take no other drink. The distilled water is also excellent for sun-burning, freckles and morphew.
Modern uses: Cucumber juice is an ingredient of many natural beauty creams, cosmetics and lotions. The seeds, like Celery and Pumpkin seeds are diuretic, but also have the ability to expel tapeworms from the body. As a beauty aid, slices ofcueumber can be applied direct to the skin..As a diuretic, the juice is indicated in kidney ailments and rheumatic conditions. It is usually combined with Carrotjuice in the ratio ofone part Cucumber to three parts Carrot. One or two glasses a day may be taken. |
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