The Efficacy and Role of Bitter Gourd

Sorching summer, hot summer, can clear heat good food began to hit the welcome of people, in it, as medicinal vegetables balsam pear is people summer heat decrease internal heat of choice, balsam pear not only has soared to decrease internal heat effect, also have the regulate glucolipid metabolism, improve the function of islet cells, antioxidation, relieve inflammation, regulating intestinal flora, and other functions.

Bitter gourd, also known as cold melon, melon, vegetable, grape, belongs to the gourd family bitter gourd annual climbing herbs, widely distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions, is China's traditional medicine and food plants.

Balsam pear fruit contains a variety of nutrients, such as balsam pear saponin and balsam pear polysaccharide.

Saponins are a kind of plant glycosides, which are active components of various drugs, and can be divided into steroidal saponins and triterpenoid saponins.

The roots, leaves and fruits of bitter gourd contain saponins, mainly triterpenoid saponins.

Different varieties of bitter gourd have different contents of saponins. So far, more than 70 saponins have been isolated from bitter gourd, including calabash alkane type, oleoflavane type, ursulane type, pea sterol, cholesterol and sitosterol saponins.

The content of balsam pear polysaccharide in the dry powder of balsam pear accounts for about 6%, which belongs to heteropolysaccharides, and its components are mainly galactose, glucose and arabinose.

Balsam pear polysaccharide has good antioxidant activity and hypoglycemic effect.

The functional components of bitter gourd are flavonoids, polyphenols, unsaturated fatty acids, alkaloids and vitamins.

Flavonoids have a polyphenol structure, and there are two forms of flavonoids in bitter gourd, free glycosides and glycosides combined with sugar.

Bitter gourd has the function of clearing heat and detoxification, clearing heart and eyes, clearing heat and relieving heat, and treating stomach ventilation.

Modern studies have shown that bitter gourd has the effects of lowering blood glucose, lowering blood lipid, improving immunity, regulating endocrine, anti-oxidation, anti-tumor, etc., among which the hypoglycemic effect of bitter gourd has attracted more and more attention from people.

Saponins, polysaccharides, proteins, flavones and other natural active ingredients in bitter gourd all have good hypoglycemic effects, and these active ingredients can reduce the blood glucose content in several ways, and some of them have synergistic effects with each other.

Hypoglycemic effect

Balsam pear mainly through the protection of the pancreas and cells, promote the secretion of insulin to achieve the effect of reducing blood sugar.

Moreover, there may be synergistic effect between different hypoglycemic components in bitter gourd extract.

Some scholars have found that polysaccharides and saponins of balsam pear can decrease blood glucose by synergistic increase of sugar storage, synergistic enhancement of antioxidant capacity and tissue oxygen supply capacity to protect islet secretion.

Effect of lowering blood lipid

In stz-induced diabetic rats treated with bitter gourd juice, hdl-c level increased, thereby increasing lipid fluidity in tissues or improving the uptake and storage capacity of free fatty acids, and reducing serum phospholipid and TG levels.

After 4 weeks of continuous intragastric administration of balsam pear water extract to hyperlipidemia mice, it was found that balsam pear water extract could significantly reduce the fat deposition in the liver of hyperlipidemia mice, and significantly reduce the content of serum total cholesterol (TC) and TG.

Anti-tumor and bacteriostatic effects

Some of the proteins in balsam pear can regulate the body's immune function, enhance the activity of TNF cells and NK cells, and inhibit the growth of tumor cells.

Filter paper diffusion method was used to study the bacteriostatic effect of balsam pear extract and its different solvent extracts. The results showed that balsam pear extract had a strong inhibitory effect on bacteria, and its n-hexane extract had a good inhibitory effect on yeast and mold.

In addition, bitter gourd also has the treatment of hernia, eczema, inflammation, diarrhea, fever and malaria and other functions.

However, the mechanism of the above activities has not been fully revealed, and the content and activity of the active components in different varieties of bitter gourd vary greatly.

As a plant with the same origin of medicine and food, bitter gourd has very high medicinal value, especially in lowering blood pressure. It is believed that with the deepening of research, the active ingredients in bitter gourd can be separated and extracted successfully to make new drugs or health products, which will greatly exert the value of bitter gourd.