Sweetened leaf decoction drunk for venereal diseases. Juice of the leaves consumed for hiccoughs, vermifuge, and as purgative. Juice of ripe fruit regarded also as antiscorbutic, cholagogic, diaphoretic, refrigerant, and useful in jaundice. Steriod fractions of the lower leaves possess estrogenic activity. The recurved hooks on the left margins can painfully injure one.
Angular stomatitis can result from eating the fruit.
Ethyl acrylate is used in creams, detergents, food, lotions, perfumes, and soaps. Some selection and improvements had been done by the Indians in pre-Columbian times. All members of A. comosus are cultigens with no wild ancestral forms. Triploid varieties are reported from Brazil, Ecuador, and the West Indies. Numerous tetraploid are known with larger fruits and longer maturing periods.