Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon or Bitter cucumber (also known as the balsam pear, bitter gourd, and karela) is the fruit of the Momordica charantia plant. It is a part of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), which includes melon, pumpkin, squash, and cucumber.

The fruit has a distinct warty exterior and an oblong shape. It is hollow in cross-section, with a relatively thin layer of flesh surrounding a central seed cavity filled with large, flat seeds and pith. The fruit is most often eaten green, or as it is beginning to turn yellow. At this stage, the fruit’s flesh is crunchy and watery in texture, similar to cucumber, chayote or green bell pepper, but bitter. The skin is tender and edible. Seeds and pith appear white in unripe fruits; they are not intensely bitter and can be removed before cooking.

Composition

Bitter Melon contains a number of chemical compounds.

• The pulp around the seeds of the mature Bitter Melon is rich in the carotenoid lycopene.^[1]

Cucurbitacins

Cucurbitacins are chemically classified as triterpenes.

• Five cucurbitacins, kuguacins A-E (1-5), together with three known analogs, 3beta, 7beta, 25-trihydroxycucurbita-5, (23E)-diene-19- al, 3beta, 25-dihydroxy-5beta, 19-epoxycucurbita-6, (23E)-diene, and momordicine I, were isolated from roots of bitter melon.^[2]

• Momordicoside A & B

  • Antiviral against various viruses infections:^[2:1]
    • Epstein-Barr
    • Herpes
    • HIV viruses
  • Increases interferon production and natural killer cell activity.^[2:2]

Nutrients

Bitter Melon contains nutritionally important vitamins and minerals:^[1:1]

• Vitamins A
• Vitamin C
• Calcium
• Carbohydrates
• Fibers
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Proteins
• Zinc

Healing Properties

Antibacterial (antibiotic)

Anti-Inflammatory

Purified compounds from the bitter melon fruit showed significant anti-inflammatory activity.^[3]

Immunomodulator

Bitter melon is known to interact with immune cells. Multiplestudies have shown that various extracts of MC can act asimmunomodulators and, hence, can also act as anti-inflammatory agents.^[1:2]

Antiviral

Antidiabetic

Different mechanisms contribute to the antidiabetic activities of M. charantia, these include increasing pancreatic insulin secretion, decreasing insulin resistance and increasing peripheral and skeletal muscle cell glucose utilization, inhibition of intestinal glucose absorption and suppressing of key enzymes in the gluconeogenic pathways.^[4]

Glucose Regulation

Momordica charantia is a plant‐based medicine used for improving glycemic control.^[4:1]

Glucose Tolerance

Bitter Melon has been used to improve glucose tolerance.^[4:2]

Hypoglycemic

The insulin‐like peptide, charantin, and the alkaloid vicine are two compounds which have been derived from the bitter melon plant, both have been reported to have hypoglycemic effects.^[4:3]

Exercise & Training

Bitter Mellon Improves running endurance.

• Increases mitochondrial content in gastrocnemius muscle (the gastrocnemius forms half of the calf muscle. Its function is plantar flexing the foot at the ankle joint and flexing the leg at the knee joint.).^[5]
• Improved endurance capacity via stimulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and function, potentially influencing muscle metabolism and fiber-type composition.^[5:1]

Anticancer

Momordica charantia L. (Cucurbitaceae) extract has been demonstrated to play a role in oncogenesis, and accumulated evidence has evaluated its anticancer effects, such as anti-proliferation and anti-migration activity.^[6]

• Isolated cucurbitane triterpenoids and their glycosides have been reported to have significant anticancer and antitumor activity.^[3:1]

Disease / Symptom Treatment

Diabetes

Various in vitro and in vivo studies have indicated that extracts of bitter melons have anti-diabetic properties.^[3:2] The anti-diabetic activity of bitter melon has been related to various triterpenoids.^[3:3]

Carbohydrate Digestion

Compounds which were isolated from the bitter melon fruit exhibit significant inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase, glucosidases required for starch digestion. The overall effect of inhibition is to help reduce the flow of glucose from complex dietary carbohydrates into the bloodstream, diminishing the postprandial effect of starch consumption on blood glucose levels. The effects exhibited by these compounds were comparable to acarbose (an anti-diabetic drug used to treat diabetes mellitus type 2 and, in some countries, prediabetes).^[3:4]

Adverse Effects

Sex-related variations

Dietary intake of Bitter Melon supplements was tested on mice. Bitter melon supplementation was shown to evoke a divergent, and generally less favorable, set of metabolic responses in females compared to males.^[7]