Poisoned by homegrown courgettes

[spacecadet]

Given courgettes by kindly neighbour and made a chicken noodle stir fry for dinner. As I was taking my first mouthfuls I noticed it tasted really bad, really bitter. Tried to persevere by adding some sweet chilli sauce and took a few more bites but then decided to stop and looked up bitter tasting courgettes. Couldn't believe what I was reading! Bitter courgettes are poisonous and can even kill you! The article said this was very rare but it said symptoms can occur from consuming a very small amount and I had at least 4 big mouthfuls. Starting to get stomach cramps and my mother is the same - expecting to have a very rough night. But why hasn't this been made more public?? It's the first time I've heard anything about it!

This is one of several useful things I’ve learnt from MN gardening threads over the years. As I understand it, the problem is most often with fruit grown from saved seed.

My neighbours gave me home grown courgettes from their parents allotment. I made a meal with them and oh my, the tummy ache was awful. At one point i was just lying on the bathroom floor it hurt so much 😂

Does it affect cucumbers as well? I always understood them to be more closely related to melons. I thought the similar appearance was just coincidence.

I thought this happens when you save seed and grow next year, the seeds don’t breed true. Always grow from purchased seeds and if it tastes at all wrong just spit it out.

I've had this with shop bought but not my home grown - same with bell peppers

I'm growing courgettes and was a bit worried to see that the seed packet said "Do not eat if bitter" because I always find courgettes a tiny bit bitter. Glad to hear that when they're poisonous, it's quite noticeable.

Hope you feel better soon, OP!

I thought bitterness in cucumbers was to do with either being mature or being fertilised. At one time you used to have to nip off male flowers. Modern varieties I think don’t produce male flowers.

They’re all in the same family, Cucurbitaceae, but in different tribes within that family. Marrows, courgettes, pumpkins and squashes are all in the genus Cucurbita in the tribe Cucurbiteae, whereas cucumber and melon are Cucumis, within the tribe Benincaseae. So I guess the same level of relationship as an apple and a rose.