Dr Pal warns of serious illness from bitter lauki or bottle gourd juice, recalls Ayushmann Khurrana wife's health scare

Lauki, or bottle gourd, is widely consumed in India. Add it to your dal, or make cheela or sabzi out of it and you have a fibrous meal. However, an unusually bitter bottle gourd can also pose a serious health risk. There have been reported cases of severe vomitting and gastrointestinal bleeding after the consumption on bitter lauki juice. Now, Dr Pal, a famous gastro doctor, known for explaining health issues through social media, has warned about the rare toxicity linked to the simple-looking lauki. He also referred to Tahira Kashyap's health scare.

Dr Pal explains how bitter lauki juice can cause vomiting blood

A viral video recently raised concerns about people vomiting blood after drinking lauki juice. Reacting to the claims, Dr Pal said the danger was real and described a case involving an Indian patient who arrived at an emergency room in California with vomiting.

During an endoscopy, he said, he found that the lining of the patient’s food pipe had been severely damaged. The cause was not alcohol, as one might assume, but bottle gourd juice. “It was not alcohol, it was lauki juice,” Dr Pal said while recounting the incident. He identified cucurbitacin, a bitter chemical produced by certain plants as a defence against insects, as the substance responsible for the toxicity.


According to the doctor, the vegetable may retain its familiar green appearance even when its taste signals a problem. In the case he described, the toxin inflamed the patient’s stomach and food pipe, triggering repeated bouts of vomiting that eventually involved blood. Dr Pal warned that severe cases can also cause blood pressure to drop and may require treatment in an intensive care unit. He added that cooking does not destroy the toxin, meaning heat cannot be relied upon to make an unusually bitter bottle gourd safe.

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A post shared by Dr. Pal Manickam (MD, MPH, AB (Gastro), DipIBLM) (@dr.pal.manickam)

However, the doctor stressed that this is a rare occurrence and advised people not to stop eating bottle gourd altogether. He described lauki as a nutritious vegetable that provides fibre and recommended tasting a small amount before using it. If it tastes bitter, the entire vegetable should be discarded rather than simply cutting away the bitter portion.

Tahira Kashyap was hospitalised after bottle gourd toxicity

Dr Pal also referred to Tahira Kashyap, the writer and filmmaker married to Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who previously spoke about her own experience with bottle gourd toxicity. In October 2021, Tahira shared an Instagram post warning people about the potential dangers of bottle gourd juice. She revealed that she had been admitted to an intensive care unit and said her doctors had encouraged her to spread awareness about the condition.

In her post, Tahira cautioned people who regularly consumed green juices, explaining that the consequences of bottle gourd toxicity could be severe. She wrote that she had been in the ICU because of the condition but did not wish to disclose further details about her ordeal.

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A post shared by tahirakashyapkhurrana (@tahirakashyap)

Tahira also urged people to read about the risks instead of assuming that a drink is safe simply because it is associated with healthy living. Her message highlighted the importance of awareness among people who include homemade vegetable juices in their daily routines.

What medical research says about bottle gourd toxicity

An article published in the National Library of Medicine identifies bottle gourd, scientifically known as Lagenaria siceraria, as a vegetable commonly called lauki, ghia or dudhi in India. The article shared that bottle gourd is generally recommended for its health benefits which includes managing diabetes, hypertension and liver diseases. However, medical reports have found suspected poisoning after people drank its juice. Severe vomiting and upper gastrointestinal bleeding were some of the symptoms. As per the research, cucurbitacins, a toxic compound found in bottle gours is responsible for the the bitter taste.