CALABASH is not upo - but a miracle fruit

Dear Philippine Star, please be informed that the calabash referred to by PITAHC is not upo. Its Philippine local name is miracle fruit.

The photo used by the Philippine Star to depict the miracle fruit is a mistake. It is another calabash of a different species. The image does not correctly represent the actual appearance of medicinal calabash, a fruit known for its round, green exterior, often resembling a young coconut in size, color, external texture, and shape.

Philippine Star, one of the country’s leading newspapers, has once again fallen short in its grasp of local food and medicinal plants, most notably in its July 18, 2025 article on calabash. 

It’s baffling how a publication as established as Philippine Star could blunder by mislabeling calabash as an upo (bottle gourd). The term isn’t just inaccurate - it is misleading. And for a paper that touts editorial excellence, the lapse feels less like an honest mistake and more like journalistic negligence.

The supposed justification of a mix-up between calabash and kalabasa (the Tagalog word) for squash, and blaming their phonetic similarity, is not valid. But when language becomes an excuse for misinformation, the credibility of the source is crumbling.

If there were a satirical prize for editorial carelessness, this article would be a strong contender for a kalabasa award. Misreporting botanical identification is irresponsible. And it demands more than quiet revisions or defensive footnotes. It calls for accountability and a reminder that facts are not optional, even when lost in translation or definition.

It might have been a forgivable mistake if what was just posted was a photo of a young coconut (buko), considering miracle fruit is often mistaken for one. But calling it upo? That’s a big mistake. Miracle fruit has been part of Philippine agriculture for generations and now grows across the Philippine archipelago, though it is less cultivated in the Visayas and Luzon. It is commonly found anywhere in Mindanao. Miracle fruit, as the kind of calabash familiar to Filipinos, can also be easily searched over the internet, as we are now in the realm of a far advanced digital world, so how could the Philippine Star still not know which calabash is miracle fruit really is?

This how a calabash tree and fruits look like. Click the image to see more and help you out.

Nope, the kind of calabash referred to by PITAHC is not upo. If you click the image of the calabash tree (above), it will show you more real photos of a calabash, in case you haven’t seen one yet. You will also find more information about the calabash fruit. 

After doing some research, it seemed the writer of the article relied on Wikipedia, probably typing a question into an AI platform, and was satisfied with the feedback. Unaware that today's AI is still a baby in its imperfect stage. It appears the entire research process was done only with a keyboard - no effort was put into proper fieldwork. The writer or researcher should have conducted a bit of anthropological inquiry, even just through phone calls with multiple informants or by asking some of the experts. The calabash mentioned in Wikipedia matches what the writer was referring to - the bottle gourd or upo in Tagalog. The surest way is that they should have interviewed a resource from PITAHC to clarify which botanical species they were referring to.

The article actually mentioned "miracle fruit" as the local name of the calabash. This weird-sounding name is a giveaway or a good lead that one must have to clarify the context of the story, because miracle fruit and upo, as local names, are neither synonymous with each other nor used interchangeably. If they had followed up on the story with further verification, they would have known that the "calabash" referred to by PITAHC is the miracle fruit and not upo. 

The botanical name for "miracle fruit" is Crescentia cujete, while upo is Lagenaria siceraria. They are of different species. 

Bottle gourd (upo) is a vine with elongated fruit often used as a vegetable, good to add in ginisang sardinas or in chicken tinola. Being used as food, upo only cures a hungry stomach, not for dreaded diseases. Not quite a miracle.

Calabash, as the miracle fruit, is from a tree. It is often mistaken for an oversized buko or young coconut being round, smooth, hard, and with same color as buko. It is widely sought in the 20th century (though known earlier by some) because of the belief that it could miraculously heal serious or incurable illnesses and diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc. That’s how it earned the name miracle fruit. Clearly, the research was lacking.

Next time you rely on Wikipedia, read the full entry because on calabash, Wiki actually says:

“There is sometimes confusion when discussing ‘calabash’ because the name is shared with the unrelated calabash tree (Crescentia cujete).” 

Wiki has a warning right there, but it was either overlooked (hindi napansin) or ignored (hindi pinansin).

The article of Philippine Star contained critical research oversights that led to the misrepresentation of a culturally significant medicinal and food plant. A mere reliance on surface-level sources and a lack of anthropological or any other prudent school of inquiry calls for a formal correction or erratum. Let’s call for accountability. Let’s get the facts straight. We need to mend the error.

Accurate reporting in science, health, and culinary culture demands more than surface-level sourcing. It requires curiosity, cultural sensitivity, and the diligence to seek truth beyond the keyboard. PITAHC and its work deserve accurate representation. So does the public. An erratum isn’t just a formality—it’s a step toward restoring trust and honoring knowledge.

While PITAHC and the Department of Health (DOH) have issued public advisories regarding the risk of so-called miracle fruit (again, not upo), their responsibility should not end there. A simple warning without follow-through leaves critical questions unanswered. What if this local botanical remedy truly holds powerful healing potential for untreatable diseases? What if generations of empirical knowledge have truly uncovered something science has not fully explored? One may start asking for help from the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), as it supports the exploration of the potential of top-tier plants for treating diseases like diabetes, cancer, and inflammation.

Rigorous validation through clinical trials, ethnobotanical studies, and collaborative inquiry with traditional practitioners and medical experts could illuminate whether this plant is simply folklore or an overlooked powerful medicine.

For culinary inventors and gustatory scientists, you must also explore the potential of calabash (a.k.a. miracle fruit) in creating a nutritious, if not a potent food.

With the public’s welfare on the line, it’s not enough to caution. It is time to investigate more what counts as a public menace, and what counts as beneficial for public welfare.

So what if by saving an opportunity to embrace a fully natural healing remedy, we may also have discovered a gold mine out of miraculous fruits growing right in our own backyards? 

Tell me what your thoughts are in the comment section below. 

#calabashisnotupo #upo #miraclefruit #PITAHC #DOH #thefoodfactspolice #FFP