The Nightshade Superstition About Eggplant
India is the birthplace of eggplant. But seldom do we see Indian varieties. In fact, many people assume that eggplant, which is actually a fruit not a vegetable, comes from the English who originally thought of eggplant as having an ornamental virtue rather than a culinary one. Its beauty is not to be under estimated but the numbers of ways eggplant can be prepared to eat are virtually endless. And the more I explore this lovely fruit the more I appreciate the multicultural possibilities.
This attraction to eating eggplant is a relatively recent phenomenon due to old fears surrounding the fruit. As a member of the Nightshade family, eggplant was thought to be a poisonous vegetable that caused leprosy, insanity, cancer and an unpleasant personality. Further, the discovery that the fruit contained an alkaloid was thought to aggravate gout and arthritis. People with these conditions were even told not to eat eggplants. Perhaps the bitterness of eggplant may have compounded these biases further, but by the 18th century, eggplant had been developed that was less bitter. Yet people still are wary of the fruit. Old notions die hard and eggplant biases are no different.