The bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is an horticultural species from the tropics and subtropics cultivated for its edible fruits known for their extreme bitterness. Information about the use in animal feeding of bitter gourd and its products is extremely limited.
Morphology
Momordica charantia is an annual climbing or trailing herb with stems (vines) up to 5 m long. The stems are ridged, glabrous or hairy, and they bear simple tendrils. The leaves are showy, alternate, simple, borne on 1.5-7 cm long petioles. The leaf-blade can be glabrous or pubescent, deeply palmated, 2.5-10 cm broad x 3-12.5 cm long. The flowers are solitary, unisexual, borne at leaf axils, regular, pentamerous up to 2 cm long, pale yellow to orange-yellow; male and female flowers are distinct. The fruit is a pendulous broadly ovoid and beaked berry, up to 11 cm in length × 4 cm in diameter (some cultivars reach up to 45 cm × 9 cm). Immature fruits are green in colour, and then become reddish-orange when ripe. They split open at maturity to release the seeds sheathed in a sticky red pulp. Cultivated fruits have smooth to spiny surface. The seeds are oblong, 10 mm × 5 mm, flattened, white or brown (Njoroge et al., 2004).
Uses
The fruit of bitter gourd is used for human food, and it is considered a famine food in West Africa. Immature fruits are mainly used in stews, curries and pickles, and can be used raw, in salads, like cucumbers. Treatments like parboiling, soaking, salting, or scoring the skin help to reduce bitterness. Dried pieces of fruit are used to make tea in Japan and other Asian countries. The leafy shoots may be eaten, and, in Asia, the plant is sometimes grown only for the shoots.
The plant is widely used in ethnomedicine. Particularly, the unripe fruit, seeds and aerial parts have been used in various parts of the world to treat diabetes. The compounds responsible for the hypoglycaemic principle in Momordica charantia could be steroidal glycosides (a combination of several saponins named "charantin"), insulinomimetic lectins and alkaloids (Raman, 1996). The roots have been reported to be abortifacient while leaves and shoots would have anthelminthic effects. The seeds have been reported to be poisonous (Njoroge et al., 2004). The extraction of bitter gourd seeds yields drying oil, which may be suitable for industrial purposes (varnishes, paints etc.)(Madaan et al., 1984). Use for animal feeding of bitter gourd fruits, seeds, oil meal, and plant parts are cited in the literature but there is little evidence that they are actually used.
