Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Tukhm-e-Kaddu is the dried seed of the bottle gourd (Latin name Lagenaria siceraria), used as a single drug in Persian and Unani medicine. It is also sold as bottle gourd seed. Healers class it as a "cooling" seed and give it for restlessness, poor sleep, headache with heat, burning on passing urine, and dryness.
It is normally taken as a seed powder, as a milky cold infusion, or as a pressed oil rubbed on the scalp. In cooking, the gourd itself is a common vegetable across South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The evidence verdict in one line: the seed has a long record in Unani practice, but almost no human trial evidence, so traditional standing here is not proof that it works. That point is made once, here, and not repeated in every section below.
Nobody has shown clearly how Tukhm-e-Kaddu works in people, and the explanations below are proposals rather than proven facts.
In Unani theory the seed is "cold and moist". It is thought to calm heat in the body, soothe irritated linings, and bring on sleep. These are traditional ideas, not measurements.
In the laboratory, gourd seed extracts contain fats, sterols and small amounts of plant compounds that have shown mild antioxidant and calming activity in animals. Animal and test-tube results often fail to repeat in humans, so treat them as leads only.
One mechanism is better understood, and it is a harm rather than a benefit. Some bottle gourd plants make bitter compounds called cucurbitacins, which irritate and damage the gut lining. This is why bitter-tasting gourd or its juice can cause vomiting and bleeding.
Tukhm-e-Kaddu is sold and used in a few simple forms.
Whole dried seeds, usually hulled before use.
Seed powder (safoof), taken with water, milk or honey.
A cold milky infusion made by grinding the soaked seeds with water and straining, used in Unani practice as a cooling drink.
Pressed seed oil, mostly applied to the scalp or skin rather than swallowed.
Compound Unani formulas such as sharbats and cooling seed mixtures (the "four cold seeds" group) that include it alongside cucumber, melon and pumpkin seed.
Bottle gourd is one of the oldest cultivated plants, grown in Africa and Asia for thousands of years, first as a water container and later as food.
Persian and Arabic medical writers of the medieval period listed the seed among cooling agents, and Unani texts in South Asia carried the use forward into modern practice. It sits in the classic group of "cold seeds" used for heat, thirst and sleeplessness.
It remains an everyday item in Unani clinics and South Asian home remedies today.
Get emergency help straight away if you have swallowed bitter gourd or its juice and then have severe stomach pain, repeated vomiting, vomit that looks like coffee grounds, black or bloody stools, dizziness or fainting.
See a doctor within a day or two if you get a rash, swelling of the lips or face, or breathing trouble after taking the seed.
Book a normal appointment if the problem you are treating does not improve in two to four weeks, if burning urine comes with fever or back pain, or if headaches are new, severe or keep returning. Tell your doctor or pharmacist you are taking it, especially if you are on medicines for blood pressure, diabetes, sleep or lithium.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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