Development of the First Medicinal Crop-Varieties with Enhanced Bioactive Compounds from Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

Incidence of chronic diseases including cancer and diabetes is increasing globally. Fruits and vegetables are potential sources of functional phytochemicals for prevention and management of these diseases. Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia, a popularly cultivated vegetable, contains a number of bioactive compounds with well-documented medicinal properties. These include cucurbitacin-B with proven anticancer activities, and charantin and plant insulin having demonstrated antidiabetic properties. However, the popularly grown varieties of bitter gourd are reportedly poor in the content of these phytomedicines and used only for vegetable purposes. We utilized a germplasm of wild bitter gourd, M. charantia var. muricata for the development of eight medicinal varieties including CBM3, CBM6, CBM10, CBM12, CBM13, CBM18, CBMH10 and CBMH12 in this crop, and evaluated the contents of these three phytomedicines in their fruits. We report here on the botanical description of these varieties, and phenotypic fruit traits and comparative performance of these varieties along with 17 popularly cultivated varieties with regard to the content of the three phytomedicines. We also report on the comparative performance with regard to fruit weight among the 25 varieties, and correlation of the contents of the three phytomedicines inter se and with fruit weight. Finally, we suggest five varieties including CBMH10, CBMH12, CBM12, CBM10 and CBM13, in that order, for consumption of their fruits as a source of functional foods for prevention and management of cancer and diabetes, and also as a source for extraction of these three phytomedicines for further studies on their pharmaceutical potential.