Makuea Poo-ung | มะเขืà¸à¸žà¸§à¸‡ | Solanum torvum
Family: Solanaceae - Genus: Solanum
The pea eggplant, or cherry eggplant, can be found near the vegetable gardens of the Thai Child Development Foundation.
Pea eggplant belongs to the same family of plants as nightshade vegetables, which includes potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant.
The Pea eggplant is a spiny, flowering shrub that produces large clusters of yellow-green, pea-sized berries that can be used for a variety of culinary, horticultural, and medicinal purposes.
Pea eggplants look like green peas clustered together like grapes with short stems. The plant can be quite large, taller than a man.
The eggplants begin green, but should be picked when they are about 3 inches long and green and white. They must be picked regularly to keep production and ensure they don't over ripen. Can be picked the whole year, but less in the rainy season.
THE PLANT
The plant is usually 2 or 3 meter in height and 2Â cm in basal diameter, but may reach 5 meter in height and 8Â cm in basal diameter. The shrub usually has a single stem at ground level, but it may branch on the lower stem. The stem bark is gray and nearly smooth with raised lenticels. The inner bark has a green layer over an ivory color.
The twigs are gray-green and covered with star-shaped hairs.
THE LEAVES
The leaves are opposite or one per node, broadly ovate with the border entire or deeply lobed. The petioles are 1 to 6Â centimeter long and the blades are 7 to 23 by 5 to 18Â centimeter and covered with short hairs.
THE FLOWERS
The flowers are white, tubular with 5 pointed lobes, and grouped They are shed soon after opening.
THE BERRIES
The fruits are berries that grow in clusters of tiny green spheres (ca. 1Â centimeter in diameter) that look like green peas. They become yellow when fully ripe. They are thin-fleshed and contain numerous flat, round, brown seeds.
The fruit is considered to have a bitter taste but this is not the case when it has been cooked.
CULINARY USES OF THE PEA EGGPLANT
The green fresh fruits are edible and used in Thai cuisine, as an ingredient in Thai curries or raw in certain Thai chili pastes (nam phrik).
The fruit is considered to have a bitter taste but this is not the case when it has been cooked.
NUTRITION
Pea eggplants contains iron, manganese, calcium, copper and zinc, Vitamins A and C
TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL USE OF PEA EGGPLANT
NOTE: please take advice from a doctor if you are planning to use herbal medicine.
Pea Eggplant may help prevent anemia, lower blood pressure, and promote immunity.
INTO THE WILD: a down to earth experience
For guests and visitors to Paksong we organize weekly tours "The Edible Forest" and Foraging weekends: Into the Wild. We work with local guides to take you in the jungle of Paksong. After foraging, we will cook a meal with the ingredients, using bamboo together with you!
Come and join and learn about the abundance of food that nature gives us!
INTO THE WILD!