{"id":399,"date":"2014-12-06T08:41:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T08:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/?p=399"},"modified":"2014-12-06T08:41:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T08:41:25","slug":"momordia-charantia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/momordia-charantia\/","title":{"rendered":"Momordia charantia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health benefits of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia)<\/h1>\n

BITTER MELON AND\u00a0DIABETES<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The use of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) for diabetes has been reported in the Ayurvedic<\/strong> <\/a>and Chinese\u00a0systems of medicine , but only explained since recently by scientists, who discovered someactive\u00a0constituents<\/strong> present in Bitter melon that was able to act on a similar way as insulin, with the only difference that\u00a0insuline stops the use of fat as an energy source by inhibiting the release of glucagon \u00a0and Bitter melon\u00a0inhibits key carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes as \u03b1-amylase and \u03b1-glucosidase . Image right:\u00a0<\/strong>Momordica charantia by Kazuhiro Keino under Creative Common license.<\/p>\n

The study showed how Bitter melon exerted an hypoglycemic action and could be studied as an alternative\u00a0nutritional therapy in the management of diabetes , in fact Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) is used as\u00a0antidiabetic plant because of its hypoglycemic effect . Studies have shown that Bitter melon (Momordica\u00a0charantia) repairs damaged \u03b2-cells, increases insulin levels, and also\u00a0enhance the sensitivity of insulin .<\/p>\n

From the active constituents found in Bitter melon (Momordica\u00a0charantia) thought to exert these hypoglycemic properties, namely\u00a0charantin, momordenol and momordicilin, the study showed that\u00a0momordicilin was found as the most active compound in the\u00a0respective target site.<\/p>\n

Karela (Momordica charantia) contains Gurmarin, a polypeptide\u00a0considered to be similar to bovine insulin and has been shown in\u00a0clinical studies to achieve a strong sugar regulating effect by\u00a0suppressing the neural responses to sweet taste stimuli.<\/p>\n

Additionally to Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) , other commonly used\u00a0supplements making use of their hypoglycemic effects include emblica officinalis (gooseberry), fenugreek,\u00a0green tea, and cinnamon, this last one used in many diets including teas of honey and cinnamon.<\/p>\n

BITTER MELON FOR WOUND HEALING IN DIABETIC PATIENTS<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Wound healing<\/strong> is a very complex process that requires different phases to take place in order, from haemostasis,\u00a0to inflammation, proliferation and finally remodeling. In diabetic patients wound healing is grossly impaired and\u00a0results many times in chronic wounds failing to heal. Some herbs as Bitter melon (Momordica charantia),\u00a0Aloe vera, Calotropis procera, Portulaca oleracea, Acalypha langiana, Plagiochasma appendiculatum have\u00a0been subject of study.<\/p>\n

In studies done in diabetic rats, the application of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia)\u00a0extract improved and accelerates the process of wound healing in diabetic animals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANTI-CANCER PROPERTIES OF BITTER MELON<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Eleven active constituents isolated from Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) , including two new cucurbitanetype\u00a0triterpene glycosides, one new sterol, were tested for their Cytotoxicity activities againstlung cancer<\/strong> cell line\u00a0A549<\/strong>, glioblastoma cell line U87<\/strong>, and hepatoma carcinoma cell line Hep3B<\/strong>. Two of them exhibited significant\u00a0cytotoxic activities against cancer cells two new cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides, one new sterol.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BITTER MELON AND BREAST CANCER<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Breast cancer<\/strong> is one of the most common cancers among women in the\u00a0United States. One of the approaches to control breast cancer is prevention\u00a0through diet, which inhibits one or more neoplastic events and reduces cancer\u00a0risk [21].<\/p>\n

As part of this approach some herbs, fruits and vegetables have been\u00a0subject of study among scientists and researchers. In some cases, as for\u00a0example with the use of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) extracts, the\u00a0resulsts of these studies have demonstrated certain effectiveness against\u00a0breast cancer cells, MCF-7<\/strong> and MDA-MB-231<\/strong> cell lines, and the treatment of\u00a0breast cancer cells resulted in a significant decrease in cell proliferation and\u00a0apoptotic cell death, suggesting that the use of Bitter melon (Momordica\u00a0charantia) can be used as a dietary supplement for prevention of breast\u00a0cancer [21]. Image left:<\/strong> Bixa by Kazuhiro Keino under Creative Common\u00a0license.<\/p>\n

In another study, ribonucleases from Bitter gourd seeds reported also certain anti-cancer properties in some\u00a0studies [20]. One of this studies, done on the effects of Ribonucleases from Bitter gourd seeds on breast cancer\u00a0cells, showed that this plant may be a potential agent that could be exploited as a new worldwide agent against\u00a0breast cancer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BITTER MELON SEED OIL<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Eleostearic acid (alpha-ESA) is a conjugated linolenic acid that makes up\u00a0approximately 60% of Momordica charantia (bitter melon) seed oil. As studies on the subject showed that a\u00a0water extract from bitter melon was able to inhibit breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and MDA-ERalpha7 human\u00a0breast cancer cells, the alpha-ESA acid was also subject of study. The results showed that Eleostearic acid\u00a0(alpha-ESA) can block breast cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health benefits of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) BITTER MELON AND\u00a0DIABETES The use of Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) for diabetes has been reported in the Ayurvedic and Chinese\u00a0systems of medicine , but only explained since recently by scientists, who discovered someactive\u00a0constituents present in Bitter melon that was able to act on a similar way as insulin, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[583,588,14,397,589,31,13,587,584,586,582,585,239],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-herba","tag-bitter-melon","tag-charantin","tag-chemistry","tag-cucurbitaceae","tag-cucurbitane","tag-food-and-drink","tag-health_medical_pharma","tag-momordenol","tag-momordica","tag-momordicilin","tag-okinawan-cuisine","tag-pharmacognosy","tag-triterpenes","latest_post"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Momordia-charantia.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaafiherbalcare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}