Throughout their history, eggplants have come in a wide array of shapes and colours, such as white, azure, purple, and yellow. Some of the earliest eggplants were cultivated in China. Wild eggplants used to have a bitter aftertaste. They were only used in Thailand, China and India for medical purposes.

Primitive versions used to have spines on the place where the plant's stem connects to the flowers.

But selective breeding has gotten rid of the spines and given us the larger, familiar, oblong purple vegetable you find in most grocery stores.