Comparative analysis of the metabolites from the rind, pulp and seeds of two varieties of bitter gourd using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

About 40 to 90% of the population in many developing countries uses traditional medicine. The use of traditional medicine is increasing in developing countries because of the high cost and fear of side effects of allopathic medicine. Especially for treating lifestyle diseases like diabetes, the number of people adopting traditional medication is increasing yearly. Bitter gourd is grown in tropical and subtropical regions and is one of the important plant species used for treating diabetes due to its antidiabetic, anti-lipidemic and antioxidant properties. Fruits of bitter gourd are the main plant parts used for treating diabetes. Bitter gourd fruits are used as a vegetable and consuming them regularly is likely to help in diabetes management with less drug dependency. However, the bitter taste of the fruits is deterrent. Between Momordica charantia var. charantia and Momordica charantia var. muricata, muricata is relatively less bitter. In this study, we extracted the secondary metabolites from the outer rind, inner pulp and seeds from the fruits of both varieties and profiled them by GC-MS analysis. We identified several secondary metabolites and for some of them, biological activities were reported earlier. Identification of these compounds supported the medicinal properties of bitter gourd and formed the basis for the characterization of purified compounds in the future.