Bitter Melon Extract

Product Description

The plant Momordica charantia belongs to the family cucuritaceae and is commonly known as bitter melon. Bitter melon grows in tropical and subtropic areas, including parts of East Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America, where it is used as a food as well as a medicine. It produces beautiful flowers and prickly fruit. The fruit of this plant lives up to its name¡ªit tastes bitter. Although the seeds, leaves, and vines of bitter melon have all been used, the fruit is the safest and most prevalent part of the plant used medicinally. The juice of the leaves and fruit or seeds is used as an anthelmintic. In Brazil, the dose for anthelmintic use is two or three seeds. The immature fruit of M. Charantia tastes bitter due to the cucurbitacius. Cucurbitacius is comprised of a group of triterpenes including momordicosides, A-E, K, L, and momardicius I, II and III. The roots and fruit are used as an abortifacient.

Functions: 1. Anti-diabetic Activity
Bittermelon contains steroidal saponins known as charantin, insulin-like peptides and alkaloids, which gives it hypoglycemic ability. 2 Charantin stimulates the release of insulin and blocks the formation of glucose in the bloodstream, which may be helpful in the treatment of diabetes particularly in non-insulin dependent diabetes. The hypoglycemic effect is attributed to two factors: (1)Charantin- a crystalline fraction obtained from an alcoholic extract of the fruit. Charantin administered at a 50mg/kg dose reduced hyperglycemia in rabbits by 42%. Charantin posesses pancreatic and extra-pancreatic action, and has a slight antispasmodic and anticholinergic effect. (2)P-isulin (or v-insulin, for vegetable insulin). This is a large polypeptide structurally and pharmacologically comparable to bovine insulin. The p-insulin is composed of two polypeptide chains bound together by disulphide bonds. Subcutaneous and intramuscular administration of p-insulin produced hypoglysemic effects indiabetic patients, the peak effect was observed after 4-8 hours as compared to 2 hours for bovine insulin.

2. Anti-virus activity and etc. Extracts standardized have proven efficacy in psoriasis, cancer infections, pain from neurological complications, and may delay the onset of cataracts or retinopathy and inhibit the AIDS virus through destroying viral DNA. The anti-cancer property is due in part to an enhancement of immune function. Study has shown that bitter melon extracts suppressed lymphocyte proliferation and macrophage and lymphocyte activity.

3. Anti-diabetes