A perennial[aut]Citrullus colocynthisdesert vine plant that grows in sandy arid soils, found in Mediterranean countries, Asia, North Africa, and southern Europe. ColocynthColocynthwas known to Greeks, Romans and Arab physicians. Ibn Jazlah used it for elephantiasis, nervous pain, gout, eye diseases and as antidote for snakebites. Dried and powdered fruit pulp is a powerful hydragogue, cathartic and toxic in large doses. Pulp is known to cause miscarriage when administered to pregnant women. Ibn al-Baitar stated that fruit pulp excretes yellow bile, black bile and phlegm through diarrhea, and is beneficial in headache, epilepsy, paralysis, palsy, dyspnea, chronic cough, pneumonia (or pleurisy), arthritis, sciatica, and kidney and bladder diseases; he quotes Galen and Dioscorides that massaging with juice of green fruits relieves hip and sciatica pain. Infusion of fruits is used to treat diabetes in Mediterranean countries. Traditional Iranian herbalists also use fruit for the treatment of diabetes, and as purgative, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, hair growth-promoting, abortifacient, and antiepileptic. From fruits, glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids, fatty acids, essential oils, curcurbitacins and colocynthosides A, and B have been isolated. Major constituents of the pulp are pectin, colocynthin, colocynthein, colocynthetin, and gum, while fixed oil and albuminoids have been isolated from its seeds. Ethanol fruit extract normalized cholesterol levels and significantly reduced phospholipids and TGs of hyperlipidemic rabbits. Diabetic rats fed with colocynthColocynthoil-enriched diet for 2-months had significantly lower hyperglycemia, reduced insulin-resistance, and partly restored pancreatic β-cell mass. In RCTs, supplementation with 100 mg fruits thrice daily for 2-months, significantly decreased HbA1c and FBG of diabetic Iranian patients maintained on standard antidiabetic treatment, and 1 g daily for 30-days significantly lowered blood glucose on its own in Chinese diabetic patients.