The Versatile Eggplant: Does it have Egg contents?

Does eggplant, or aubergine as it is known worldwide, have egg contents, hence the name eggplant? Of course not! It's just that eggplant used to be small, white, and egg-shaped, when it was first discovered.

Eggplant is a vegetable highly prized for its deep purple and glossy skin. It comes in small, medium, or large sizes, and in pear or banana shape. Its mild, subtle taste and soft, cream-colored, somewhat spongy texture is never missed out in the menu lists of both restaurants and sidewalk eateries. 

While eggplant cannot boast about its nutritional content as compared with green and yellow vegetables, it does have nutritional, culinary, and medicinal merits.

Nutritional. Eggplant is cholesterol-free and low in calories and sodium. It has phytochemical monoterpene that may help prevent the growth of cancer cells. Its skin adds to its dietary fiber content. To enhance eggplant's nutritional benefits, combine it with nutritious ingredients like eggs, tomatoes, and other lowland vegetables like swamp cabbage (kangkong), Chinese cabbage (pechay), or string beans. Eggplant is also one of the main ingredients of delicious dishes like pinakbet, bulanglang, and kare-kare (Filipino foods). 

Culinary. Tagged as the "versatile vegetable", eggplant can be transformed into tasty, attractive, and nutritious dishes. It can be cooked in a variety of ways: grilled, boiled, steamed, fried, baked, stuffed, stewed, pickled, and breaded. It can be prepared in an assortment of sauces: tomato, soy, coconut milk, peanut, and others.

Medicinal. Asutralian researchers developed an organic topical cream from glycoalkaloids a group of cancer-killing compounds present in eggplants. Glycoalkaloids invade a cancer cell and stimulate the cell's own digestive enzymes, which cause lesions to disappear in as short as four weeks.