Eggplant or aubergine is grown for its edible fruit.
The fruit is widely used in cooking, most notably as an important ingredient in dishes such as moussaka and ratatouille. As a member of the genus Solanum, it is related to both the tomato and the potato. The eggplant is a delicate, tropical perennial often cultivated as a tender or half-hardy annual in temperate climates. The stem is often spiny. The flower is white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens. The egg-shaped glossy purple fruit has white flesh with a meaty texture. Botanically classified as a berry, the fruit contains numerous small, soft seeds which, though edible, taste bitter because, as a relative of tobacco, they contain nicotinoid alkaloids.