ulcers. In extreme cases, people have died from drinking the juice of gourds.The toxic cases are usually due to the gourd being used to make juice, which the drinkers described as being unusually bitter. In three of the lethal cases, the victims were diabetics in their 50s and 60s. In 2018, a healthy woman in her 40s was hospitalized for severe reactions after consuming the juice and died three days later from complications.

The plant is not normally toxic when eaten. The excessively bitter (and toxic) gourds are due to improper storage