The bitter melon or balsam pear (Momordica charantia Linnaeus) is a cucurbit, a member of the Cucurbitaceae. Native to the Old World tropics, it was introduced and has naturalized throughout the subtropics and tropics worldwide. Balsam pear was probably introduced to the Caribbean and Florida by slaves brought from Africa for the sugar plantations.
Each node along the vine has a deeply lobed leaf and a tendril. Like other cucurbits, bitter melon is monoecious bearing staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers in the axils of the leaves. Bees are the primary pollinators. After pollination, a small fleshy gourd forms. When ripe, the gourd turns yellow and splits exposing the red aril-covered seeds.
The immature gourds, those that have not turned yellow, are used in Asian cooking. They are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, iron, and carbohydrates. But long ago in Africa, India, and China, the leaves and ripe gourds of bitter melon joined those plants found useful as medicines.
In Jamaica, a tea of 'cerasee' leaves is said to improve "bad blood" and ease gripes (spasmodic pains of the large intestine). In Ayurvedic medicine, 'karela' fruit is considered 'cooling' and provides a treatment for anemia and other blood disorders, stomach problems like ulcers, upset stomach, and lack of appetite, asthma, bronchitis, and fever. In traditional Chinese medicine, 'fu gua' is used as a hypoglycemic agent (reduces blood sugar levels).
Bitter melon is currently under study as a complementary drug in the treatment of diabetes both to reduce glucose levels and oxidative stress (antioxidant), as an antiviral therapy for HIV infection, and as a cytostatic (stops cell growth) in certain cancers.
But bitter melon is not for self-medicating. It is contraindicated in many people. Its blood glucose lowering ability has caused comas in people prone to hypoglycemia. Taken with a stimulant laxative, it can cause severe potassium depletion. The seeds are toxic causing vomiting and diarrhea; death can occur especially in children. It is an abortifacient and should be avoided by pregnant women. It contains vicine and causes favism in people who have a variant glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. (See Plants that Changed History, October 7, 2003) And the drug reduces fertility in both men and women.
(Compiled from: "Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia)", About Herbs, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 2004; "Karela", Bharat P. Singh, College of Agriculture, Home Economics & Allied Programs, Fort Valley State University, 2002; "Karela (Momordica charantia Linn.)", Pankaj Oudhia, Crop Fact Sheets, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, 2004; "Biological Complementary Therapies: A Focus on Botanical Products in Diabetes" Laura Shane-McWhorter, Diabetes Spectrum, 2001; and "Effect of Herbal Hypoglycemic Agents on Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Status in Diabetic Rats", Abbas Ali Mahdi, Anu Chandra, Raj Kumar Singh, Sanjeev Shukla, L.C. Mishra, and Sohail Ahmad, Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry, 2003)
