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The nightshade Solanum melongena, also known as the eggplant, brinjal eggplant, aubergine, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash, is a member of the plant family Solanaceae. The plant bears a fruit of the same name, commonly used in cooking. As a nightshade, it is closely related to the tomato and potato. It was domesticated in India from the species S. incanum.^[1][2][3]
S. melogena is a delicate, tropical perennial often cultivated as an annual in temperate climates. It grows 40 to 150 cm (16 to 57 in) tall, with large, coarsely lobed leaves that are 10 to 20 cm (4–8 in) long and 5 to 10 cm (2–4 in) broad. Semiwild types can grow much larger, to 225 cm (7 ft) with large leaves over 30 cm (12 in) long and 15 cm (6 in) broad. The stem is often spiny. The flower is white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens. The fruit is fleshy, has a meaty texture. It is less than 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter on wild plants, but much larger in cultivated forms.
The fruit is botanically classified as a berry and contains numerous small, soft seeds which are edible, but have a bitter taste because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids; this is unsurprising as it is a close relative of tobacco.

Etymology

Some 18th-century European cultivars which were yellow or white resembled goose or hen's eggs, hence the name "eggplant."^[4] The name "aubergine" is from the French, a diminutive of auberge, a variant of alberge, ‘a kind of peach’ or from the Spanish alberchigo or alverchiga, ‘an apricocke’.^[5] It may be also be derived from Catalan albergínia, from Arabic al-baðinjān from Persian bâdenjân, from Sanskrit vātiga-gama).
Aubergine is also the name of the purple color resembling that of the fruit,^[5] and is a commonly known color scheme^[6]
In Indian, South African, Malaysian and Singaporean English, the fruit is called baigan brinjal, being derived directly from the Portuguese beringela. A less common British English word is melongene, which is also from French (derived) from Italian melanzana from Greek μελιτζάνα. In the Caribbean Trinidad, it also goes by meloongen from melongene.
In Indian native languages Hindi and Urdu, it is called "Baingan"or"Baigan".^[7]

History

Solanum melongena flower

The plant is native to the Indian Subcontinent.^[1][2] It has been cultivated in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory,^{[citation needed]} but appears to have become known to the Western world no earlier than circa 1500. The first known written record of the plant is found in Qí mín yào shù, an ancient Chinese agricultural treatise completed in 544.^[8] The numerous Arabic and North African names for it, along with the lack of the ancient Greek and Roman names, indicate it was introduced throughout the Mediterranean area by the Arabs in the early Middle Ages.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the eggplant was known in Britain as the “Jew’s apple" because of its great popularity among Sephardi Jews, who may have brought it to England. ^[9]
Because of the plant's relationship with the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, the fruit was at one time believed to be extremely poisonous. The flowers and leaves can be poisonous if consumed in large quantities due to the presence of solanine.^[10]