Question

Is Brinjal a vegetable or a fruit? Explain.

Answer 1

Hint: Before talking about this topic, one must know the basic difference between a fruit and a vegetable. A fruit develops from a flower of the plant which is fertilized eventually and then the ovary gets converted into the fruit and the ovules get converted into seeds.
On the other hand, the vegetables develop from other plants like the stem, root, leaves, etc.

Complete answer:
Although brinjal is widely categorized as a vegetable, it is actually a fruit.
Now, since it belongs to the ‘nightshade’ family, which contains most of the vegetables, and due to the appearance of brinjal and taste, it is widely regarded as a vegetable.
But brinjal actually is a fruit that develops from flowers. It belongs to the family Solanaceae, and from the botanical point of view it is a berry. It contains numerous small, edible seeds.
Thus, actually brinjal is a fruit.

This is an image showing the flower of a brinjal.

Note:
The scientific name of brinjal is Solanum melongena. Due to its egg-like fleshy skin, brinjal is also known as eggplant. The fun fact which majorly compels people to think of brinjal as a vegetable is its appearance and taste.
Whenever we think of a fruit, we basically think that a fruit will be juicy, sweet or slightly sour in taste, have a soft pulp, etc. Now brinjal has almost none of these. The fruit itself does not look like a fruit and has a hard mesoderm. The taste is also not like a fruit. So, these characters also compel people to think brinjal to be a vegetable rather than a fruit.