Bitter Melon

Bitter melon also known as bitter gourd or balsam pear is a young, tender, edible fruit pod in the momordica genus of climbing vines. Although, its bitter taste might turn some people away from it, in-fact, it can really sweeten your health by virtue of its disease preventing and health promoting phyto chemical compounds.

Botanically, it belongs to theacucurbitaceae family, in the genus, momordica and is a member of the same family of squash, watermelon, cantaloupes, cucumber, etc. Some of the related varieties are balsam pear, cundeamor, la-kwa, etc.

Bitter melons (momordica charantia). Oriental variety. Note for the uneven pebble like longitudinally arranged ridges. The ends are round and blunt.

Bitter melons hanging down in a vine. A variety commonly found in indian subcontinent.note for pointed ends.

Bitter melon is one of the popular edible pod vegetable in many asian countries. It is grown widely as a field crop as well as backyard vegetable and, in fact, is among the most bitter of all culinary vegetables. Bitter melon is a temperate/tropical vegetable probably originated in south-east asia. Like in other members of the cucurbitaceae family, this plant too is a fast-growing, trailing or climbing vine with thin stems and tendrils which require trellis to support their climbing vines.

Bitter melon pods are characterized with soft lengthwise ridges and uneven pebbly surface. Depending upon the cultivar type, immature pods can be light to dark green and have oblong or oval shapes with a pointed tip at the blossom end. Internally, the flesh is white with rough edged seeds, somewhat similar to ridge gourd seeds in appearence. As the fruits begin to mature, they gradually become hard, turn yellow or orange.

The vegetable is very low in calories, providing just 17 calories per 100g. Nevertheless, its pods are rich in phytonutrients like dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Bitter melon notably contains phyto-nutrient, polypeptide-p, a plant insulin known to lower blood sugar levels. In addition, it composes hypoglycemic agent called charantin. Charantin increases glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis inside the cells of liver, muscle and adipose tissue. Together, these compounds have been thought to be responsible for reduction of blood sugar levels in the treatment of type-2 diabetes.

Fresh pods are an excellent source of folates, carrying about 72 ag/100g (18% of rda). Folates, when taken by mothers during their early pregnancy time, would help reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in the newborn babies.a

Fresh bitter melon is an excellent source of vitamin-c (100 g of raw pod provides 84 mg or about 140% of rdi). Vitamin-c is one of the powerful natural antioxidants which helps scavenge deleterious free radicals from the human body.

Further, it is an excellent source of health benefiting flavonoids such as b-carotene, i plus-minus -carotene, lutein, and zea-xanthin. It also contains a good amount of vitamin-a. Together, these compounds help act as protective scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ros) that play a role in aging, cancers and various disease processes.

Bitter melon stimulates easy digestion and peristalsis of food through the bowel until it is excreted from the body. Thus, it helps in relieving indigestion and constipation problems.

In addition, it is a moderate source of b-complex vitamins such as niacin (vitamin b-3), pantothenic acid (vitamin b-5), pyridoxine (vitamin b-6) and minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium, manganese and magnesium.

Early laboratory tests suggest that compounds in bitter melon might be effective for treating hiv infection.