Bitter Melon: Nature's Anti-Diabetic
A Traditional Herbal Remedy    "Let food be your medicine, and your medicine your food,"  Hippocrates wrote. For centuries, Bitter Melon has served both purposes.   Known by many names around the globe (see table 1 below), and in the West as Bitter Gourd, Bitter Cucumber, Balsam Pear, Alligator Pear, and African Cucumber, the Bitter Melon plant (Latin name Momordica charantia) derives from Asia. But it is also used in Africa, South and Central America and the Caribbean, where it is a central crop for the indigenous populations and is cultivated both as a food and also as a medicine.   Only now is the Western World becoming aware of its therapeutic potential. Through increasing scientific and medical studies, the medicinal properties of the Bitter Melon plant, long since known and passed down from generation to generation through anecdotal reports in other parts of the world, are now being unraveled. These are the first important steps in the West’s acceptance of this nutritious vegetable as a food source and also as a mainstream medicine for the treatment of a number of medical conditions, most importantly diabetes.   A member of the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family, Bitter Melon is a relative of squash, watermelon, muskmelon and cucumbers. The Bitter Melon plant yields a fruit that is approximately 8 inches in length, medium to light green in color, that resembles a rough, warty cucumber or gourd with shiny, waxy flesh. The plant is a fast growing, trailing or climbing vine with fine stems that produces long-stalked leaves and yellow male and female flowers. The Bitter Melon flower opens at sunrise and will remain open for only a single day.   When mature or ripe, the Bitter Melon fruit becomes lighter green in color and is often tinged with orange and yellow. At this stage, the fruit also splits open to reveal many brown or white seeds that are surrounded by red arils. Each fruit contains as many as 200 seeds per ounce.    The edges of the leaves of the Bitter Melon plant are jagged or "dog-eaten" in appearance, which is the source of the Latin name, Momordica, meaning "to bite." The more popular name, Bitter Melon, comes from the fact that the fruit, leaves, roots and seeds of the plants all taste very bitter. This is because of the high concentration of quinine in the plant.There are a number of varieties of Bitter Melon plant grown around the world. The shape and color of the fruit and leaves vary between them, but the overall taste and use of each is pretty much the same wherever you find this wonderfully adaptable species.    A Healthy FoodAs a vegetable, the Bitter Melon is immensely nutritious, an excellent source of both vitamins and minerals. Bitter Melon is very rich in iron, potassium and calcium in particular, and it is packed with beta-carotene (vitamin A), vitamins C, B1, B2 and B3. Nevertheless, it tends not to be featured as an ingredient in the Western diet because most of us are unaccustomed to its incredibly bitter taste.     One way of getting around the bitterness is to include Bitter Melon in recipes that contain additional, balancing flavors, such as in soups and stir-fried dishes. It is important to note, however, that Bitter Melons are not uniformly bitter. Younger, less mature fruits are at the top of the bitter scale, while more mature melons are less bitter, becoming milder as they ripen. A later chapter contains recipes for you to try out. If you haven’t eaten Bitter Melon before, perhaps you should start your association with this amazing nutritional addition to your diet with a riper, less bitter fruit.     Seek out the culinary advice of the experts at your local Asian market or wherever you go to buy Bitter Melon. Depending on the climate where you live, you may even be able to grow your own Bitter Melon plants. There are an increasing number of outlets for many Bitter Melon seed varieties, but be sure to choose the tastier and medicinal varieties rather than the simply ornamental versions of the plant.