Bitter Gourd treatment for diabetes

Bitter melon is a nontoxic vegetable. It is also known as bitter gourd and bitter cucumber. It is rich in nutrients such as iron, potassium, beta-carotene, phosphorous, Vitamin C, Vitamins B1, B2 and B3 and fiber. Bitter melon is widely known as an effective natural medicine for diabetes and has been used as an important compound in Chinese Medicine.

Now scientifically, it has been found that it effectively and safely treats type-2 diabetes without any side effects. Researchers revealed the mechanism by which it treats type 2 diabetes.

The study was done at Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. Researchers isolated 4 bioactive compounds from its pulp. These compounds found to stimulate the human enzyme AMPK (Activated Protein Kinase) and the protein found is well known for regulating fuel metabolism and controlling blood glucose levels.

People with type 2 diabetes, face the problem of converting sugar in their blood into energy. This happens because of insufficient insulin production and the inability to use insulin by fat and muscle cells effectively.

Professor David James, Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Program at Garvan, said that, “We can now understand at a molecular level why bitter melon works as a treatment for diabetes.”By isolating the compounds we believe to be therapeutic, we can investigate how they work together in our cells.”

Drs. Jiming Ye and Nigel Turner, Garvan scientists involved in the research emphasized that though there are popular diabetic drugs available in the market that do activate human enzyme, AMPK, can cause possible side effects.

Adding to it Dr Ye, said, “The advantage of bitter melon is that there are no known side effects. Practitioners of Chinese medicine have used it for hundreds of years to good effect.”

The authors of the study concluding their finding with a happy note and said that:
“Some of the compounds we have identified are completely novel. We have elucidated the molecular structures of these compounds and will be working with our colleagues at Garvan to decipher their actions at a molecular level. We assume it’s working through a novel pathway inside cells, and finding that pathway is going to be very interesting.”