The cultivated eggplant or aubergine, Solanum melongena, is cultivated world wide for its fruits which are used in cooking.Aubergines are native to southeast Asia, but were brought to Europe sometime in the 1500s, where they eventually became popular and were exported around the world (Eu-Sol: Eggplant history).The name by which the aubergine is known in the United States is eggplant, thought to come from old white fruited varieties where the fruit is egg-shaped.