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About Bitter Gourd

Momordica charantia, known as bitter melon, bitter gourd, bitter squash, or balsam-pear has names in other languages which have entered English as loanwords, e.g. goya fromOkinawan and karela from Sanskrit.

It is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.

• Bitter melon is very low in calories, carrying just *7 calories per **0 g. Nevertheless, its pods are rich sources of 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 calledcharantin. Charantin increases glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis inside the cells of liver, muscle and adipose tissue. Together, these compounds may have been thought to be responsible for blood sugar levels reduction in the treatment of type*2 diabetes.

• Fresh pods are an excellent source of folates, carrying about *2 µg/**0g (*8% of RDA). Vitamin folate when taken by mothers during their early pregnancy time, would help reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in the newborn babies.

• Fresh bitter melon is an excellent source of vitamin-C (**0 g of raw pod provides *4 mg or about **0% 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 -carotene, a-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.