Wax Gourd Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Wax Gourd (Benincasa hispida) is the winter melon or ash gourd, a vigorous trailing annual vine of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, native to South and Southeast Asia and grown across China, India and the Pacific as a vegetable. Its hairy stems run several meters with large, lobed, rough leaves and yellow five-petaled flowers. The oblong fruit can exceed 30 kg and is covered when ripe in a chalky white, waxy bloom that lets it keep for months; the flat, oval, cream-colored seeds are known in China as dong gua zi. We extract the dried seed.