The winter cherry or ground cherry plant, Physalis alkekengi, used in traditional medicine; also the berry enclosed in a papery husk.
From Arabic al-kakang or Persian origins via Medieval Latin. The name traveled from Middle Eastern and Asian traditional medicine into European herbals, where it was Latinized.
Alkekengi berries were the original 'superfood'—medieval doctors prescribed them thinking they cured everything from fevers to kidney stones, and modern research shows they actually do contain bioactive compounds.
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