Eggplant

The eggplant, or aubergine (Solanum melongena), is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated worldwide for its edible fruit and used as a vegetable in cooking. Its fruit is most commonly purple and spongy, and though a berry by botanical definition, it is nutritionally modest in macronutrients and micronutrients. The species was domesticated from wild nightshade relatives, likely through separate domestication events in South Asia and East Asia. World production reached about 61 million tonnes in 2023, with China and India together accounting for 85 percent of the total.