Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is widely cultivated as a vegetable and medicinal herb in many Asian and African countries. After the sequencing of the cucumber (Cucumis sativus), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), and melon (Cucumis melo) genomes, bitter gourd became the fourth cucurbit species whose whole genome was sequenced. However, a comprehensive analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSRs...

Population abundance of red spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch., was studied in cucmber, ribbed gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd, aroids and teasle gourd and efficacy of four new acaricides were tested against this pest in brinjal at the farmer’s field of Norsingdi during 2009-2010. At the same time, the spatial distribution of this pest in brinjal crop was also studied. Results indicated th...

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), a commonly consumed vegetable is used as an adjunct in the management of diabetes mellitus. A study was carried out to examine the effect of edible portion of bitter gourd at 10% level in the diet in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. To evaluate the glycaemic control of bitter gourd during diabetes, diet intake, gain in body weight, water intake, urine su...

The red pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) is a common, serious and major pest of a wide range of cucurbitaceous vegetables. It is injurious to the crops and cause severe damage to almost all cucurbits. The present study was conducted to find out the host suitability of red pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) among different cucurbit hosts in the Laboratory and Field La...

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is an important vegetable and medicinal plant in tropical and subtropical regions globally. In this study, the draft genome sequence of a monoecious bitter gourd inbred line, OHB3-1, was analyzed. Through Illumina sequencing and de novo assembly, scaffolds of 285.5 Mb in length were generated, corresponding to ∼84% of the estimated genome size of bitter gourd ...

Once there was an immortal who lived in a bottle gourd and emerged each morning to sell medicine. Every night he returned to the bottle gourd to sleep. Curious about this strange behavior, a mortal followed him into the bottle gourd. There he found a spacious fairyland with landscapes of unearthly beauty. This story was told by Ge Hong, an important figure in the development of Taoism, in his f...

The solvent extracted vegetable seed oils of Cucurbitaceae family viz. Bitter gourd (Momordica charentia), Small bitter gourd (Momordica dioica), Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siscraria) and Ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) were evaluated as grain protectant against callosobruchus chinensis on the stored legume-pulse grains. All the vegetable seed oils were found effective as legume-pulse grain protect...

Traditional medicine is widely practiced in tropical countries. Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) fruit juice is advocated as a part of complementary and alternative medicine. If the bottle gourd juice becomes bitter it is considered toxic. We report 15 patients, who developed toxicity due to drinking bitter bottle gourd juice. Patients presented with abdominal pain, vomiting, hematemesis, dia...

Momordica charantia L. (Bitter gourd) is a flowering vine in the family of Cucurbitaceae. It contains an array of novel and biologically active phytochemicals including triterpenes, proteins and steroids. Medicinally, the plant has a long history of use by the indigenous people as a folk medicine. Bitter gourd is often used in Chinese cooking for its bitter flavor, typically in stir-fries, soup...

Background: Spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb. Willd) is one of the important cucurbitaceous crops grown across the world for vegetable and medicinal purposes. Diseases caused by the DNA viruses are becoming the limiting factors for the production of spine gourd reducing its potential yield. For the commercial cultivation of the spine gourd, propagation material used by most o...