Bitter Gourd?

Bitter gourd which has a scientific name of Momordica charantia; it is called as kugua (mandarin), karela (Hindi), hagala kayi (Kannada), pavakka (Tamil) other than that it is also called as balsam pear, balsam apple, pare and bitter melon.

Bitter gourd is a plant that grows on a tendril bearing vines in tropical conditions like in South East Asia, South America and other countries with a tropical climate. The bitter gourd has a relatively wrinkled appearance and usually it is appears in green, white and orange colour. Its interior is hollow with seeds filling the hollow area of the bitter gourd (The Herbal Resources, 2009). It has a relatively similar texture as cucumber which is crunchy and juicy. Apart from its nice texture it is also highly beneficial:

• It can help lower the blood sugar levels in diabetic patients.
• It is also capable to relief constipation and also effective to treat psoriasis.
• It can also help improve blood circulation plus it is believed to cause slimming effect.
• With regular consumption of bitter gourd it is associated with the prevention and treatment of hypertension.

(Iloveindia.com, 2009)

With the few above mentioned benefits of bitter gourd, the liking towards bitter gourd is still very low due to its bitterness. Hence, this has prompted us to conduct this experiment to help decrease the bitterness in bitter gourd and improve the overall liking towards bitter gourd.