Talk:Luffa

"Annual" vines
I was going to change "anal" to "annual" on the first page but like the user below me I hit edit and it doesn't show. Someone fix this immediately! Some kid is gonna put "anal vines" in their report for grade school.. thanks to wikipedia. Weird.. now it isn't showing up. Keep an eye out for it I guess.

I'm trying to remove this text: "this well known plants can be eaten and are very tasty and colorful" but when I click edit, it doesn't show me the text... Anyone else seen this problem? Its right below the stub notice. Havocrazy 03:03, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Never mind, it seems to be a bad edit on vegetable-stub Havocrazy 03:07, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Bill O'Reilly (commentator), Andrea Mackris, and the Luffa
Reference to Bill O'Reilly's loofah fetish needed here, as it is probably the only way most people have heard of this topic.

really? I have heard it from a different source ;)

An anonymous censor removed the O'Reilly mention. Does it warrant being reverted, or is it too trivial? I'd heard of loofahs before that whole scandal, and I've never confused them with falafel either. Schizombie 05:46, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the Bill O'Reilly is pretty trivial and doesn't warrant mention in a Luffa article. 206.124.144.226 04:32, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The term loofah isn't even used in the O'Reilly article linked to. Besides, I wouldn't expect the "cigar" entry to have a link to Pres. Clinton article (sorry, only comparison I could think of). I'm deleting it. 199.133.19.143 (talk) 19:47, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Good analogy, and good pull!  John Alan Elson  ★  WF6I A.P.O.I. 05:59, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

ヘチマ
It seems it's called hechima in Japanese. Does its being written with katakana mean that it's a foreign-origin word? If so, what language?—Wikipeditor 00:08, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * The word is written in katakana not because it's a loan word, but because it's the name of a plant species. It seems to be fairly common practice to do this, as can be seen from the JP entry for Dolphin, for example. I'd guess this is done to indicate that it's the proper name, analog to how Latin is used taxonomy in English and other languages.


 * Curious about the previous comment, I looked up ja:ヘチマ, and I found that it was a member of the category ja:Category:ウリ科. I presume that it's a category about certain plants. If you take a look there you'll see a boatload of katakana names. --babbage 14:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Anal Vines, Anal Vines.....
Anal Vines was the song that Christopher Plummer sang in the movie "The Sound of Music " —Preceding unsigned comment added by RxDrK (talk • contribs) 17:15, 14 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Edelweiss or rather the Edelweiss (song)? Nice Mondegreen !--195.137.93.171 (talk) 01:33, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Why all the translations of luffa into obscure languages? It doesn't belong here. Let the alternative language versions of Wikipedia cover this or travlang or bablefish. Does Pinus pinea (Italian Stone Pine) also need to get encumbered by its translations into Urdu, Tagalog, and Vietnamese? Clearly someone thought it interesting to post the Urdu translation and lingo-obscurist have just followed suit. Should remove all of this except perhaps some etymological mention of the English word luffa. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.130.13 (talk) 01:17, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. Ashmoo (talk) 13:23, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

the flower and inflorecence
can anybody tell me the color of the luffa and the type of its inflorecence —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.6.149.107 (talk) 12:13, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

When describing the plant itself, it should be mentioned that these vines get huge. I had one in the backyard in Austin, Texas, that climbed all over a fence and into a neighbor's tree, and the branches of the vine were at least 30 feet long. Wastrel Way (talk) Eric

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging
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Ridge gourd - Isn't a Luffa!
Ridge gourd links to this page, but they're different fruits. Can anyone fix this? The ridge gourd or sponge melon has 10 sharp edges, unlike a luffa.DaveDodgy (talk) 01:39, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Effective Remedy?
After some googling, I cannot find anywhere any verifiable evidence that the fruit can defeat jaundice. It also seems like this is somewhat unrealistic due to the fact that jaundice is caused by various conditions related to liver disfunction. I am hence removing the word 'effective' from the page. If anybody can cite any references to the contrary, please replace it.Labrat256 02:18, 11 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Labrat256 (talk • contribs)

I can find one study from 1968 on Luffa used on rats with experimental jaundice, though I would have to ask the university library for a copy, it is not available digitally. This study is cited thrice since then, which is not a good sign for its importance or, well, validity. I cannot access the abstract or such, so all I know is that there has been a study involving jaundice and Luffa, from other studies I do not think the effect of Luffa consumption is likely to have benefited the lab rats; Luffa can be toxic in high quantities, as that taxes the liver it is unlikely to be beneficial. As you say though, it should not, from first glance, be a cure. I CAN find a case study (S. Giri et al. 2014) where an older man got adverse reactions (GI bleeding, deranged liver function and shock) to toxins in the plant after trying top use it as a medical remedy. The plant is known to be potentially dangerous if large quantities are ingested. For that reason I remove the medicine section, someone else may want to write a bit on toxicology related to Luffa overdose if someone reopens it. Vegar Ottesen 09:04, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Names in other languages
The second paragraph reading: "The Luffa acutangula is commonly known as ridged gourd and is called Tauri 'توری' in Urdu..." is gratuitous and seems unnecessary. I am going to remove it. MrPMonday (talk) 07:04, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

"In Marathi, the gourd is called as Ghosale (घोसळे) or Dodaka (दोडका). Because of the tendency of getting soft due to loss of moisture, the vegitable is aptly called as Gilaka (गीलका) in some parts of Maharashtra" - I corrected the mistakes; but why is it "aptly called" Gilaka? What does Gilaka mean? "The softening one"? Please clarify or rephrase the part starting from the "because".

Overlap with Luffa aegyptiaca
This article mentions the Japanese name hechima, and I was puzzled as to why there is no wikilink to the ja:WP article. Turns out this ja:ヘチマ is linked (by the wikidata thing, I suppose) to the separate article Luffa aegyptiaca. I realise that the genus name and a particular species name are not botanically the same thing, but the content of the two articles is confusingly overlapping. I do not know how to sort out the wikidata thing (personally, I think the idea that you can simply list all encyclopedic topics in all languages is a miasma). And I'm not sure what the best step would be. Perhaps a discussion about a merge... ? Imaginatorium (talk) 09:28, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

“Citation needed”‽
What sort of citation is actually needed for discussing that the loofah is the source of the scrubbing sponge of the same name?! Jbsegal (talk) 16:45, 1 November 2020 (UTC)