Momordica charantia - Karavellaka, Karabellam

Momordica charantia, Bitter gourd

Bitter gourd , known as bitter melon, Momordica charantia, bitter squash, or balsam-pear, has names in other languages which have entered English as loanwords, e.g. goya from Okinawan and karela from Sanskrit. Those from the Caribbean island of Jamaica commonly refer to the plant as cerasee.

Description

This herbaceous, tendril-bearing vine grows up to 5 m (16 ft) in length. It bears simple, alternate leaves 4–12 cm (1.6–4.7 in) across, with three to seven deeply separated lobes. Each plant bears separate yellow male and female flowers. In the Northern Hemisphere, flowering occurs during June to July and fruiting during September to November.

The fruit has a distinct warty exterior and an oblong shape. It is hollow in cross-section, with a relatively thin layer of flesh surrounding a central seed cavity filled with large, flat seeds and pith. The fruit is most often eaten green, or as it is beginning to turn yellow.

When the fruit is fully ripe, it turns orange and mushy, and splits into segments which curl back dramatically to expose seeds covered in bright red pulp.

Uses

• Bitter melon is generally consumed cooked in the green or early yellowing stage. The young shoots and leaves of the bitter melon may also be eaten as greens.
• Bitter melon has been used in various Asian and African herbal medicine systems for a long time.
• In traditional medicine of India different parts of the plant are used as claimed treatments for diabetes, as a stomachic, laxative, antibilious, emetic, anthelmintic agent, for the treatment of cough, respiratory diseases, skin diseases, wounds, ulcer, gout, and rheumatism.
• Momordica charantia has a number of purported uses including cancer prevention, treatment of diabetes, fever, HIV and AIDS, and infections.

External Links

Momordica charantia-Wikipedia