The loofah belongs to the gourd family and is a winter specialty vegetable, being the fruit of a citron, originally from Mexico and the Indonesian archipelago.Introduced to the Yangtze River Basin in the 1990s, it is now mainly produced in Fujian, Shandong, Yunnan, and Taiwan.The loofah resembles hands clasped in prayer, giving it a Buddhist blessing meaning, hence its name “Buddha's Hand”,"Fortune and Longevity”,and is greatly loved by people.The Buddha's hand is crisp and juicy with a delicious taste, has high nutritional value, and can be used for cooking or eaten raw as a fruit.
