BITTER MELON

Momordica charantia, called bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash in English, karavella in Sanskrit and karela in Hindi and Urdu, karla in Bengali and Marathi, pavakai (பாகற்க்காய்) in Tamil, hagala kayi in Kannada, kakarakaya in Telugu, and kudhreth narhy (kudret narı) in Turkish is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all fruits. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit. This is a plant of the tropics.
Karela originated in India, and it was carried to China in the 14th century.


Local names

In some English texts, the plant or the fruit may be called by its local names, which include kugua (Chinese: 苦瓜, pinyin: kǔguā, "bitter gourd"); parya (Ilokano), pare or pare ayam (Javanese and Indonesian), pavayka or kayppayka (Malayalam:പാവയ്ക്ക, കയ്പ്പക്ക ), goya (Okinawan: ゴーヤー) or nigauri (Japanese: 苦瓜; although the Okinawan word goya is also used in Japanese), paakharkaai (Tamil: பாகற்காய்), hāgalakāyi (Kannada: ಹಾಗಲಕಾಯಿ), ma'reah (Khmer: ម្រះ), kaakarakaya(Telugu: కాకరకాయ), করলা (korola) (Bengali), ampalaya (Tagalog), muop dang (Vietnamese: mướp đắng) or kho qua (Vietnamese: khổ qua). It is also known as caraille or carilley on Trinidad and Tobago, carilla in Guyana, cundeamor is a small variety very common in Puerto Rico (actually is the Momordica balsamina), and cerasee or cerasse in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, including parts of South America (although is known in Portuguese as melão de São Caetano - and Spanish-speaking areas, however is known by the Okinawan or Japanese names in others regions). It is karela in Hindi - and Urdu-speaking areas, कारले (karle) in Marathi. It is known as तीते करेला (tite karela) in Nepali. In Suriname, it is known as sopropo. The fruit is called kudret narı in Turkey, faaga in Maldives, and karavila in Sri Lankan(Sinhalese).


Anticancer
Two compounds extracted from bitter melon, α-eleostearic acid (from seeds) and 15,16-dihydroxy-α-eleostearic acid (from the fruit) have been found to induce apoptosis of leukemia cells in vitro. Diets containing 0.01% bitter melon oil (0.006% as α-eleostearic acid) were found to prevent azoxymethane-induced colon carcinogenesis in rats.
Researchers at Saint Louis University claim an extract from bitter melon, commonly eaten and known as karela in India, causes a chain of events which helps to kill breast cancer cells and prevents them from multiplying.