A Peruvian annual climbing plant with branching stems that can measure up to 5m, leaves indented into 5 or 6 parts with serrated edges, flowers in groups of 10 to 20. The fruit is long, curved and soft, with a pointed tip, 10 to 20cm. long.

The main use of caigua is in the reduction of high cholesterol. Caigua is doubly beneficial since it reduces LDL cholesterol (known as the bad type), while it has been shown in various clinical studies that it increases the HDL cholesterol (known as the good type). This double effect makes caigua an ideal compound for helping to control more adequate levels of blood cholesterol.
Hypocholesterolemic, hypolipemic, diabetes, circulation, cholesterol, diuretic.
Traditionally people eat the ripe fruit as a vegetable in stews, or stuffed. Seeds: for high blood pressure and anti-worm. Root: for cleaning the teeth.

Ripe fruit: peptin, galacturonic acid, di-hydroxitriptamine, pierine, resins, minerals (phosphorus), vitamins (thiamine, vit. C), lipoproteins and steroidal compound (systosterol and 3 beta D glucoside) with hypoglycaemic and antilipemic (against cholesterol LDL) action, low density lipoproteins. Luteoline, diosgenine (basis of production of sex hormones, anti-inflammatory and anabolizants), stigmasterol, stigmadicine.

Hypo-cholesterol effect: The unicentric, randomized, parallel and double blind test carried out in the Cayetano Heredia University, Lima, in post-menopausal women showed reduction in cholesterol levels with a dosage of 1800 mg of micro-pulverized caigua daily. Hyper-cholesterol was reduced from 75% to 12.5%. It was shown that the levels of the LDL cholesterol decreased, while that of HDL cholesterol increased. Another study realized by the same University in 60 adults for a period of 12 weeks registered the reduction of LDL cholesterol by 23% and increase of HDL cholesterol by 42% in the group treated with 6 capsules daily. In the cases of hyper-cholesterolaemia, treatment with 6 capsules daily normalized the levels of seric cholesterol in 82% of the cases.
Another study realized with live rabbits showed a decrease in cholesterol levels from the 332.4 in the control group to 128.4 in the group treated with freeze-dried caigua at a dosage of 40mg/100g of diet for a period of 8 weeks.

Anti-inflammatory effect: A study on rats compared the anti-inflammatory effect of caigua, administered intra-peritoneum, with that of ibuprofene, showing an anti-inflammatory effect of 57% in the case of caigua at the maximum dosage investigated, as compared with 35.7%in the case of ibuprofene. The effect was shown to be dosage dependent. A similar study using oral administration showed a more moderate effect with respect to the percentage inhibition of inflammation, but always dosage dependent.

Analgesic effect: A live study realized by the Institute of Traditional Medicine (Peru) showed an analgesic dosage-dependent effect of caigua when administered to mice intra-peritonally. The percentage increase of the analgesic activity was from 41.5% to 111.62% at a maximum dosage of 3g/kg, compared with 39.82% of the control group which was given paracetamol.

The study realized by the toxicological laboratory of IMET=IPSS determined a DL50 of 4.88g/kg body weight in a study made on mice inoculated intra-peritoneally. A study of acute toxicity was also carried out orally, and was unable to determine the DL50, since the maximum dose of 2000mg/kg body weight registered neither mortality nor toxic symptoms. It is therefore considered to be non-toxic.