Could you ever imagine that bottle gourd (lauki) juice, which a lot of people think of as a health drink, and also drink it on a regular basis, be harmful?

Doctors working in a private hospital in Delhi agree to it. According to Dr. M P Sharma, ex- Head of the Gastroenterology Department at AIIMS and now working with Rockland Hospital said that a 60-year-old scientist died in his hospital after he drank a bottle gourd and bitter gourd juice on an empty stomach.

His wife, who as well, complained of vomiting blood and severe diarrhea after drinking the juice, had a close call. Sharma said that fruits and vegetables from the cucumber family have poisonous toxins, which give off their bitter taste.

So while drinking if the juice tastes bitter, it should not be consumed, he said.

Amit Sood said that his father-in-law, who was a Senior Deputy Secretary with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, had been drinking the juice for no less than four years.

Almost 15 days back after drinking the similar juice, he said that the juice tasted bitter and even his wife who tried drinking the juice complained of the similar taste.

Doctors said that two more such cases have been reported previously in India, one at the Himalayan Institute in Dehradun and one more from Ahmedabad.